Butterfly Chicken for Beginners

[rangerone]

I am still a relative newbie at BBQ in general, and specifically using the Smokenator. I really like to cook chicken, so I did quite a bit of research on what are the best methods to do smoked chicken on my Weber + Smokenator combo. This is the method I chose and used with excellent results. I hope you find it useful.

• Butterfly the Chicken
  I always thought this would be too much extra work, but it is super simple and easy to do. Took me all of 2 minutes. This is basically removing the backbone and cracking the breast bone so the chicken can be opened up and lay flat. There are many YouTube videos that you can watch to demonstrate how to do this. This is very important for even cooking of the chicken. It also cooks the chicken faster.
• Dry Brine the Chicken
  Basically put salt all over the chicken (interior and exterior areas), and especially under the skin. This will help to keep the meat juicy and crisp the skin. This is an easy alternative to wet brines and seems to work very well. If you want to read more about dry brines, go to the Amazing Ribs web site. Instead of simply using salt, I used my dry rub which contains a good amount of salt already. Use your fingers to get between the skin and meat, and lift the skin everywhere you can without tearing it (mostly breasts and legs). After applying the salt / rub, place the chicken back in the refrigerator for at least 2-4 hours to allow the salt to be properly absorbed into the meat. This step is important, do not skip it.
• Smoke the Chicken
  I set up my Smokenator with Maple Leaf Briquets and 1 chunk of cherry wood, water in the Smokenator pan, and water in a drip pan. I adjusted the vents on my Weber to achieve 225F - 235F grill level temperature as confirmed by my Maverick grill probe. I inserted my meat probe into the breast of the chicken and placed the chicken over the drip pan. After the first hour I topped off the Smokenator pan with water and stirred the coals. After the second hour, the internal temperature of the chicken breast was 155F. I stirred the coals, but did not fill the Smokenator pan with water (it was almost empty). I opened up the lid and bowl vents 100% and let the temperature climb. Within 15 minutes the grill temperature was 250F. Within 30 minutes it was 275F. Within 45 minutes it was 282F. At the 60 minute mark, the grill temperature was 285F and the temperature of the chicken breast was 165F, and the chicken was removed. 

The results were a golden brown chicken (from the cooking with cherry wood) with crispy skin (from the higher heat for the last hour), and evenly cooked, juicy meat (the butterfly effect). Keeping the temperature lower for the first two hours helps the chicken to absorb the cherry wood smoke. Letting the Smokenator water pan run dry is the best way to ensure a quick climb in the kettle temperature (accurately measured at the grill level) which aids in creating the crispy skin. My chicken was 1.51Kg and was perfectly cooked in 3 hours.  In the past when I cooked the chicken whole (not butterflied), no 4 hour brine step, kept the grill temperature at 225F-2235F, it resulted in drier breast meat, rubbery skin, and longer cooking times (about 4 hours). 

Here are the before and after pictures. The after picture is suffering glare from 2 direct sun spots. 



I hope that some of you find this technique useful for doing chicken with your Smokenator.

[ncsmoker]

Nicely done Allan. Looks delicious. Again I highly recommend an instant read thermometer to check the thigh temp and the temp on the other side of the breast. Both may not cook at the same temp.

Tom

[bigpernz]

That looks great! I always butterfly my chickens too they cook faster and more evenly and as you said it takes 2 minutes. The first chicken I made was smoked at 225 and the meat was great but the skin was flabby and rubbery so now I always use higher temps and it works much better.