Smoke-Roasted Chicken with Horseradish Dip – Steven Raichlen’s Project Smoke

barbeque chicken with a horseradish dip chicken with white barbecue sauce originated at Big Bob Gibson's in Decatur Alabama the project smoked version features a technique called smoke roasting and a special smoker called a drum smoker or upright barrel smoker first step fill the coal pan with charcoal briquettes then take about 40 briquettes out and place them in a chimney starter to light the chimney starter fill the bottom with crumpled newspaper and to generate smoke we're using one of the classic woods of the south pecan chunks you'll need three chunks on top of the coals and just lower the coal basket into the upright barrel smoker now once the coals are lit dump the coals on top of the unlit coals this technique is called top-down ignition the fire actually burns from the top down and that gives you a long even burn the next thing you want to do is cut the chicken in half using poultry shears first cut down one side of the backbone then the other side when project smoke we try and use organic chickens remember what your chicken eat and how it's raised is as important as how you smoke it so take out the backbone remove any extra lumps of fat using a large knife cut the bird in half take a hook and hook the chicken under the breast so it hangs like this insert metal bars in the smoker that pecans smoke is great but it's really strong then hang the chickens on the bars and you might think that the bottoms of the chicken would burn because they're directly over the coals but thanks to the thermodynamics of this cooker it maintains an even temperature throughout the cooking time is about an hour and a half to two hours meanwhile let's make the kick start with mayonnaise 1/2 cup of grated horseradish 1/2 cup of cider vinegar freshly grated lemon zest this is the aromatic oil rich outer rind of the lemon sea salt freshly ground pepper and whisk the ingredients into a smooth dip and we'll use this sauce both for glazing the chicken and as a barbecue sauce upright barrel smokers are great for long pieces of meat that you hang from the hooks like whole beef tenderloins half chickens very fuel-efficient they hold in moisture they're also relatively inexpensive so if you want to get started in the smoking business without investing thousands of dollars these are a great choice it's been an hour and a half let's check the chickens oh man these are gorgeous you want to cook the chicken to an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees insert your instant-read meat thermometer into the thickest part of the meat bingo we've got it now pull the chicken out and look at that it has a beautiful mahogany color and one of the advantages of smoking the chicken in an upright barrel smoker is that you work at a slightly higher temperature so the skin actually gets crisp the low and slow method is great for flavor but it doesn't give you crisp skin during the smoking process I basted the chickens with melted butter I'm just going to base them one more time this adds flavor and a beautiful Sheen and when the hooks are cool enough to handle remove them from the chickens now take about a quarter of your glaze and spoon it into a baking dish and place the chickens in the sauce so they can absorb the dip you want to let the chicken absorb the glaze for about 10 minutes this makes it more tender and juicy any leftover glaze can double as a barbecue sauce so let's see how we did the chicken and we'll just cut it into pieces look at that the knife just glides through the meat it's so tender the color is really beautiful and it's a little different than the barbecue chicken with red barbecue sauce this chicken is super naturally tender you can see the skin is still crisp just forgive me here take a slice the breast and a little of the horseradish game man that is really nice great smoke flavor super moist what's really interesting is the barbecue sauce that horseradish vinegar the creaminess and the mayonnaise it's very different than your usual barbecued chicken you

Channel: Steven Raichlen Public TV

Views: 175,455

Rating: 4.9047618 out of 5

Keywords: smoke, roast, chicken, poultry, horseradish, dip, glaze, pecan, wood, barrel, drum, upright, Alabama, white, bbq, barbecue, raichlen, big, bob, Gibson, charcoal, top, down, ignition

Id: _Ypy7ImRjoM

Length: 7min 25sec (445 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 24 2015