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grilling Grilled or Smoked Chicken?

The Hot Pepper

The Hot Pepper

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This ain't about ribs or brisket, or laziness and convenience. This is simply about flavor! Now sure I love to smoke, and you can't compare grilled ribs to smoked, and you can't pull pork after grilling... so yeah, we love our BBQ... butttttt when it comes to chicken it's a closer race. I marinate mine all day in beer and secret spices and grill it over super hot coals, bottom side down. You immediately smell the beer steam and spices. I only turn it over on the skin side for about 5 minutes for grill marks and color, then I turn it back over. No sauce! A little rub, but the real flavor is from the deep marination. This is a pure charcoal charred marinated juicy chicken that rivals BBQ any day. Anyways... I am wondering what y'alls thoughts on chicken are. I do like my smoked chicken, but when I do my grilled I seem to forget about the smoked, it's so good! Had some tonight, so I created this poll.

Post pics in this thread with your grilled or smoked chicken!
 

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Chicken does not benefit from a slow, smokey cooking process like other meats do. If I wanted the smoked flavor, I'd throw a handful of wet wood chips on the coals at the start of grilling or I'd use a really good natural wood charcoal.

In short......grilled. ;)
 
I can't vote for a combination, so I went with grilled. However, for a whole chicken, or even quarters, I like to smoke them for a while then finish them on the grill so they get the best of both worlds. If it comes down to one or the other though I have to say grilled.
 
Grilled is good...


but, I like to smoke chicken at 350-375, more of a bake :lol: Then remove the cooking section of the WSM and place the grate directly over the charcoal and cook chicken skin side down to crisp and get grill marks :cool:

texas blues said:
Deep fried.
Click to expand...

More than one way to skin a ... :rofl:
 
I actually like beer can chicken because it steams the beer with spices into the chicken, but I do like to throw the whole bird on a hot grill to crisp up the skin and add some char flavor. If not the chicken ends up lookin like a brit in the winter just pasty!
 
Alphaeon said:
Grilled is good...


but, I like to smoke chicken at 350-375, more of a bake :lol: Then remove the cooking section of the WSM and place the grate directly over the charcoal and cook chicken skin side down to crisp and get grill marks :cool:



More than one way to skin a ... :rofl:
Click to expand...

Oh yeah I do something similar and call it "hot smoke" and I do my jerk chicken like this. See here: http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/9178-the-drunken-chef/page__view__findpost__p__333383


LGHT said:
I actually like beer can chicken because it steams the beer with spices into the chicken, but I do like to throw the whole bird on a hot grill to crisp up the skin and add some char flavor. If not the chicken ends up lookin like a brit in the winter just pasty!
Click to expand...

Never done the beer can stand-up chicken, but I like the beer flavor so I do a beer marinade. This way you really get the beer flavor with all the other flavors in the marinade. I feel the beer can is mostly for show, but I can also see that it does steam it from inside.
 
I never realized the technique had a name...but I also do what you called a "hot smoke".
I use apple wood chips or small branches off my apple tree and put them in a cast iron box or skillet over the direct flame on one side of my grill and get the smoke rolling. I then put marinated (or dry rubbed) chicken (preferably boneless thighs) on the opposite side, close the lid and check back in about a half hour.I'll add some more wood if necessary, maybe baste the meat and come back after another half hour.
The light smoked flavor of the apple wood goes very well in a chili verde recipe I have used for several years, and has won some top honors at cook offs.
I love to see peoples facial expression when they have tasted that recipe for the first time...their eyes light up and its truly one of those Ah...ha.....discovery moments.
Problem is...thats the first thing I'm asked to bring to cook outs and parties, and its tough to keep the necessary heat levels for "Hot smoking" on my grill during the winter months around here.
 
Haha well I guess I coined the term, I just figured it wasn't really smoking with those high temps, but the chicken was still indirect so I called it hot smoking. I guess we need the third option ;).

Cool to see other people do this as well. Works great with chicken.

Ditto on the apple wood.
 
thehotpepper.com said:
Oh yeah I do something similar and call it "hot smoke" and I do my jerk chicken like this. See here: http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/9178-the-drunken-chef/page__view__findpost__p__333383
Click to expand...

Never had jerk that was smoked... interesting :)

Picked that way up from the Virtualbullet site I think. 350-375 is the temp chicken is added at, then it drops to 325 or so.

One thing I do hate is rubbery chicken skin :hell: Hot smoke is a good name... and ditto x2 on applewood for chicken :woohoo:
 
thehotpepper.com said:
Never done the beer can stand-up chicken, but I like the beer flavor so I do a beer marinade. This way you really get the beer flavor with all the other flavors in the marinade. I feel the beer can is mostly for show, but I can also see that it does steam it from inside.
Click to expand...

If you haven't tried the beer can chicken your in for a treat. I don't marinade my chicken in beer and even after only a few hours the beer can that was full is usually close to empty when the bird is done. Since I usually seal off the top the steam has no where to go, but THROUGH the chicken making it a steamer. That and it really adds a LOT of moisture. So although it does add a huge amount of flavor it also keeps the bird VERY moist at the same time. I haven't tried it yet, but you can actually "beer can" a turkey now. I can't wait for Turkey day this year!
 
I find you can't really get a good crispy skin with smoking unless you also grill it, and even then the skin seems a bit bitter. I also find there isn't really enough fat in a chicken for slow cooking, so I save the smoker for pork :)
I usually prefer deep fried or drunker chicken(beer can chicken but with a proper stand instead of a can) but as said previously it depends on what part of the chicken is being cooked
 
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