Thursday, June 4, 2020

Smoke and More Smoke

The voodoo dolls have been held at bay for an entire day.  Knock on wood, nothing went wrong yesterday as I drug out my smoker for some local entertainment.

I love smoking in my Bradley.  It's controls are all electronic so it's much easier, at least until you get to the end part where you determine if it's done or not.  I quit cooking chickens because I never seemed to get that part right.  They were WAY too red in the middle, probably because I didn't know how to work the vent at the top.  How hard can that be?

This is a new recipe from Myron Mixon.  He's won more barbecue championships than anyone in the world, and he will tell you so.  Must be some good stuff, so I got his book.  Anything to give me an edge and not waste this expensive meat.

Believe it or not, I actually brined these two chicks overnight, something I've never done before.  Then I mixed up his rub and placed them on racks in these big pans, filling them half full of apple  juice.  In the smoker they went.
Looking pretty good, right?  My mouth was watering and my entire self smelled of smoke.  Unfortunately, I left the little vent open too much and it wouldn't come up to 250 degrees.  45 minutes later, I figured it out, which of course added 45 minutes to the cooking time.   Three pound chickens, three hours, only mine were FIVE pound chickies.  

By the way, did I mention I had company?  My friend Cyndae came down from Sacramento.  The perfect guinea pig to test out this recipe.  She likes ALL my food!  Finally, five hours later, they hit 165 degrees and I brought them out to rest.  They looked a little overdone to me but it turned out that was just the rub and not charcoal.
Amazingly, they were cooked perfectly, juicy and tender.  I'm not so hot on Myron's rub though.  There was WAY too much chili powder and not near enough salt.  He probably wouldn't give away his best recipes ... maybe I can tweak this one and make it more to my liking.  

The other problem, if anyone might know, is that I really don't taste that much smoky flavor.  Out of the five hours it cooked, I only ran the smoke for 2-1/2 hours.  Maybe I should have let it go for the entire cooking time?
At any rate, it was pretty tasty ... a win in my book.  Next up baby back ribs.  Cyndae stopped in at Costco on her way down and picked up a three pack for me.  We will see how Myron's recipe is for those in a couple of days.

In the meantime, I sure would like to know who is setting up all these protests.  You have to get a permit to do so in every town.  So far there have been four in our local area, something that has never happened before.  Businesses are now being shamed and blamed because they put up plywood to protect their stores from damage.  "How dare you think we are going to loot and burn your business.  You are SO racist!!!"  I kid you not, that's what's going on here in California.  

There is going to be another in Merced this morning.  The Sheriff, Highway Patrol and Police Department are geared up to keep the peace.  Our Sheriff is one cowboy you don't want to mess with.  In the meantime, I'm doing some investigation to see just what organization is setting these up in our tiny farming towns.





11 comments:

  1. Your chickens look and sound delicious! I can't eat smoked because of migraines but still enjoy looking at them. How fun you've got company to enjoy them with!Who can blame the little towns! Better safe than sorry. Regular protesters are fine, but it's those few that are being brought in that spoil the whole things. I'll be curious what you find out in your investigations!

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    1. I'm not a big smoke flavor fan either. I like just a little flavor, so I use a much milder wood, like apple or cherry.

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  2. Never tried the smoking process but am certain that it adds to the flavour.
    Better to protect your investments with Plywood then Bullets. Most of the Protesters are peaceful but then you have the Criminals that use them as covers to do their dirty work.
    Be Safe and Enjoy your visit.

    It's about time.

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    1. You've got that right!! There's always the bad apple.

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  3. Could not even believe that Grant Napier, Sacramento Kings (or is it the Scrotumento Queens now) announcer got fired for tweeting "All Lives Matter". How RACIST can ALL LIVES be???? Me thinks we are now living in Amerika... (And as a native of Sacramento, previous fan of the Kings, and LOVER of this country of ours, it is HARD to write what I just wrote!)

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    1. It's just ridiculous. I hope he sues them. Heck, everyone has been tweeting the exact same thing. I still think it the few bad apples who are giving the entire barrel a bad name.

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  4. Who are the perpetrators, they walk on the backs of others if you're going to take out a permit for a demonstration do you honestly think they're actually going to use a specific group you're not alone in your thoughts because most P D's Dig into the social media background and get a lot of information as to who they are who they're talking to and what they're saying plus analyzing facial recognition in the videos That appear on social media networks
    Sure the simple little act of trying to break in or breaking into an establishment somebody videoing from the outside gives them a lot of information
    Show the videos that are posted and the ones that you see a probably only a small portion of what's actually out there
    Three packages of baby back ribs,,, sounds like a party to me

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    1. Here's Something that's stupid people don't understand


      Apple tracks looted iPhones
      Apple says it is using software to track phones stolen by looters and will display a warning message.

      NEW YORK - Apple is watching the looters who have pillaged its stores during the protests.

      Thieves who made off with iPhones from Apple stores quickly learned that the gadgets were loaded with special security software. It displays a special message

      "This device has been disabled and is being tracked. Local authorities will be alerted."

      The on-screen message has popped up on social media posts by disappointed thieves.

      Apple saw locations ransacked in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington.

      To think when you have a phone it has a tracking app it knows your every location as well as your present or past
      The rat takes the food back to his house now you know where he lives isn't software amazing


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    2. Interesting about Apple. I do remember something about tracking those. As to the looters, many were wearing masks that completely covered their faces. I sure hope they go after the rest of them.

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  5. Interesting about the chicken. Looks really good. The problem I'm having with the looting is that it's not just contained to downtown Sacramento. There were fights at Arden Fair and looting at Sunrise Mall. Our West Sacramento Target and Walmart keep closing at different hours depending on what is happening that day. West Sacramento is just across the river from downtown but the other areas are far from downtown. I'm upsetting myself so I better stop. I'm looking forward to seeing the ribs.

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    1. I know what you mean Elva. It upsets me something terrible to see the damage they are doing. It's truly giving the entire group a really bad name.

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