For Christmas, I got Miguel a Sig P365.
He, in turn, gifted me a Cuisinart vertical propane smoker.
It’s been sitting outside since December because winter in New Hampshire sucks.
With the holiday weekend and the weather being beautiful, I decided to try it out.
I picked up a brisket, boneless leg of lamb, and boneless chicken thighs, as well as a bag of hickory chunks.
The brisket was dry rubbed with a mix of kosher salt, sugar, brown sugar, paprika, and black pepper, and left in the fridge for 48 hours.
The other meats got dry rubbed for three hours with some dry rubs that were gifted to me.
At noon, the brisket went in.
Three hours later, the rest of the meat and some Vidalia onions went in too.
At dinner time (about 7:00) everything came out.
Man cannot live by meat alone (he probably can, but his wife makes him make vegetables), so I did corn on the cob and potatoes on the grill.
After the meat rested, the spread was ready.
It was delicious.
I need to work on the timing a bit better, the thighs got a tad dry, but this was my first time.
We are going to be eating smoked meat for the next couple of weeks.
Thank you Miguel.
P.S. I need to refill my Atorvastatin.
I hate chicken so I am not an expert but do the following: Smoke for one hour at least. After that, wrap in tin foil with a splash (or more) of your favorite liquid (Beer, apple cider, apple juice, vine, etc) and finish the allotted time.
To make it easier, get a disposable aluminum pan, get all the chicken in it, add the liquid and top the chicken with pieces of butter before sealing the pan with foil.
Have the doc raise the milligrams of atorvastatin.
PS: Or for your next chicken, try this recipe.
https://www.meatchurch.com/blogs/recipes/dr-pepper-chicken
PS2: My absolute pleasure.
/cue Homer Simpson voice
Mmmmmm…… Meat candy.
Damn… the smoker is so nice and clean. The inside of mine looks like Dresden after the Brits sent air mail.
That is what I refer to as seasoning.
Atorvastatin doesn’t do any good but if I take it my cardiologist lets me get away with some other stuff.
When I retired, I got one of those ‘awards catalogs’ to pick a ‘gift’ from.
The only thing that looked to be worth a sh*t in the whole catalog was a “Smoke Vault” that looks just like that Cuisinart, so I ordered it.
A few weeks later, the daughter called and said a box had appeared on the deck, and she couldn’t hardly move it.
It does have a water tray you can use if you want.
Been using the heck out of it for the last three years.
Alder works well for just about everything, but cherry is nice for roasts too. I tried apricot wood one year after trimming the trees, and that was very sweet tasting, but also good.
Pork loin with salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder comes out tender, and moist.
Chicken breasts with butter and garlic are awesome.
And, yeah, the inside is kinda ‘gooey’ after running smoke through it for three years, but I really appreciate NOT having to constantly tend it like I did with the wood fired smoker I had been using.
Don’t know what temperature you used, but for me brisket needs to go 24 to 26 hours at 185 to 225 F.
It’s wasn’t a big brisket and I honestly couldn’t have probably done less time
I’ve been pondering a smoker for myself for some time now and this blog may just peer pressure me into pulling the trigger.
.
For living in the proper south (okay, it’s Huntsville, so it’s like living in Austin, AL), I’ve been disappointed with a lot of the barbecue here. That couple with the cost and lack of good brisket is gonna push me over the edge to start rolling my own.