One Stewed Chicken

The men in my family and a few good friends would cry if they knew how I misused good bourbon this weekend. I tried to smoke a chicken that was brined in a Jack Daniels laced concoction. I said "tried" because I don't think I quite smoked it as much as baked it on the grill. I had a hell of a time maintaining the lower temperature that was called for. And despite that, the chicken was wonderful. There were just enough hints of the Jack Daniels and smoke. I could still detect these flavors tonight when I made chicken noodle soup for myself with what was left over.

I decided to try this daring epicurean feat (at least it was for me) after reading how you can smoke foods on small charcoal grills in the August 2011 edition of Cooking Light The recipe that captured my imagination was Fantastic Bourbon Smoked Chicken on page 124. I learned that the tricky part is keeping the temperature in the grill low, around 275°. Most of the time I had the temperature at around 350°, and it really wanted to be in the 400° range. I think a big part of the problem was that I was impatient. I put the chicken on far too early. I should have let the coals burn down further instead.

What had happened was that I had planned on smoking the chicken Sunday night. But I've been fighting a respiratory infection for a while, and it got much worse Sunday morning. I barely had the energy to get out of bed, much less tackle this extravaganza. (I'm a terrible baby when I'm sick.) So, we (my friend Ken and I) decided to put it off until Monday evening. Which meant the chicken was kept in the brine about 36 hours rather than the minimum 18. Anyway, I also had an all day workshop on Monday so I couldn't start smoking until after 4:00. I didn't want to be cooking until 9:00, so I put the chicken on too early. By the way, the chicken is supposed to smoke for about 2 hours.

How it's done is that you pile the hot coals on one side of the grill and have a pan of water under the chicken on the other side. The smoking happens when you put different wood chips that have been soaked in water on to the coals. In this case you use apple wood. So, in theory it's easy enough. I do think I'll be able to pull this off eventually, but there's definitely a learning curve.

So, here's the recipe:

Ingredients
2 quarts water
9 tablespoons bourbon, divided
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons kosher salt
2 quarts ice water
1 tablespoon black pepper corns
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
3 bay leaves
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1 small onion quartered
1 small Fuji apple, cored and quartered
1 lemon, quartered
1 (4-pound) whole chicken
1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Preparation
1. Combine 2 quarts water, 1/2 cup bourbon, sugar, and kosher salt in a large Dutch oven, and bring to a boil, stirring until the salt and sugar dissolve. Ad ice water and next ingredients (through lemon), and cool to room temperature. Add chicken to brine; cover and refrigerate 18 hours, turning chicken occasionally.
2. Soak wood chips in water for 1 hour; drain.
3. Remove the chicken from brine; pat chicken dry with paper towels. Strain brine through a sieve; discard brine and reserve 2 apple quarters, 2 lemon quarters, 2 onion quarters, and garlic. Discard remaining solids. Sprinkle chicken cavity with pepper; add reserved solids to chicken cavity. Lift wing tips up and over back; tuck under chicken. Tie legs.
4. Remove the grill rack, and set aside. prepare the grill for indirect grilling, heating one side to high and leaving side with no heat. [....] Place [a] disposable aluminum foil pan [...] on unheated side of grill. Pour 2 cups of water in pan. Let chips stand for 15 minutes or until smoking; reduce heat to medium-low. Maintain temperature at 275°.
5. Coat the grill rack with cooking spray; place on grill. Place chicken, breast side up, on grill rack over foil pan on unheated side. Combine the remaining 1 tablespoon bourbon and butter; baste chicken with the bourbon mixture. Close lid, and cook for 2 hours at 275° or until thermometer inserted into meaty part of thigh registers 165°. Add remaining 1 cup wood chips halfway through cooking time. Place chicken on a platter; cover with foil. Let stand for 15 minutes. Discard the skin before serving.