Gas Grill-Smoked Lemon-Thyme Chicken

[coraa]

This is probably the best roast or grilled whole chicken I've ever made, and that was a first, experimental run. I can't wait to try it again and fine tune, but... delicious.

The boy approved, too. (In fact, we picked the chicken carcass totally clean. Like vultures. Vultures who appreciate fruitwood smoke.)

This recipe has no quantities, because I was experimenting and did not keep track. It does have the method, though. (In brief: chicken brined in a flavorful brine, basted in a lemon-olive-oil-shallot sauce, then slowly grilled with soaked wood chips for smoke.)

The method is largely copped from Cooks Illustrated.



First, I brined a whole chicken. I made the brine of equal parts salt and sugar, plus two sliced lemons, several crushed cloves of garlic, and a big branch of thyme, dissolved in boiling water and let to steep for half an hour. I then added plenty of cold water and ice cubes, and the chicken, and brined for an hour and a half.

I also put my fruit-wood chips in water to soak.

Then I pulled the chicken out, dried it thoroughly, and rubbed it with a rub of ground pepper, a tiny smidge of cayenne, a bit more salt, and dried thyme. I let that sit for half an hour

Meanwhile, I mixed up a vinaigrette-style emulsified basting sauce of lemon zest, lemon juice, minced shallot, dried thyme, and olive oil.

Then I basted the chicken thoroughly with the basting sauce and let it sit for an hour, flipping at the half-hour point.

Finally, I preheated the (gas) grill with all burners on high. I also set the wood chips to drain. When the grill had preheated for 15 minutes, I turned off half the burners.

I created an open pouch thingy by layering several layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil, folding up two sides to form a cone, and pouring in the drained-but-damp wood chips. I put that on the still-on-high side of the grill.

I flopped the chicken, breast-side down, on the off side of the grill, splashed some of the basting liquid on the back, and closed the lid and let it cook for half an hour.

At the half-hour mark, I checked the breast, which was deeply browned, and flipped the chicken over. I cooked another half-hour, at which point it was more than thoroughly cooked, although I did make sure with a thermometer.

The chicken came out beautifully: moist and tender in both the breast and the leg, well-browned, well-seasoned, with a deep taste and aroma of lemon and smoke.

NOM.

Comments

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

Dayum, this sounds amazing.