Smye's Favorite Smoked Chicken

Prep time - 20 minutes, Cook time -2 hrs          Add to MyFitnessPal

 

This recipe is adapted from the Neely's on Food Network (by the way, I do NOT recommend food network for bariatric patients, food porn is never a good idea when we're trying to be so careful with everything we put into our bodies). I received a smoker for my birthday the year before my surgery and I was eager to still enjoy the fruits of my smoker. This recipe is absolutely delicious - the chicken is tender, juicy, and oddly reminiscent of barbeque potato chips.

 

Make this one, impress your friends, and love feeling satisfied with a 'comfort' meal that's entirely comfortable on your conscience.

Parted out and ready to eat!

Ingredients

Salt - 1 tsp

Paprika - 1 tsp

Garlic Powder - 1 tsp

Garlic salt - 1 tsp

Black pepper - 1 tsp

Crushed Red Chili Flakes - 1 tsp

Cayenne Pepper - 1/4 tsp

Dried Thyme - 1/2 tsp

Dried Oregano - 1/2 tsp

Brown Sugar - 1 Tbsp

Raw Chicken - 1

 

Preparation:

Preheat your smoker with either applewood, alderwood, cherry, or blackberry chips. If you don't have a smoker, set up your grill, charcoal or gas, so there's only (medium to medium-low) heat on 1 side of the grill, wrap your soaked wood chips tightly in foil and puncture with a fork 4 or 5 times so there's minimal airflow but it's not entirely sealed. Then set the foil packet full of 2 cups of chips directly above the heat source.
 

Thoroughly rince the chicken and pat entirely dry with a paper towel. Spatchcock the chicken (cut along the spine on both sides, remove the spine, 'unfold' the bird until flat and tuck the wing tips behind the 'collar bone' until the bird is roughly uniform in thickness and forms a 'sheet' shape). Set aside meat side up and allow to come to room temperature.
 

Mix all the spices thoroughly and rub all over the meat side of the chicken, make sure to get in all the nooks and crannies. If you have any leftover spices, rub them onto the bone side of the bird.
 

Place the chicken, meat side up, in your smoker. If using a grill, set the chicken over the portion of the grill without a heat source - this is called indirect heat. Cover and allow to smoke for 1-2 hours until the internal temperature of the meatiest part of the thigh reaches 165 F. The whole 'until juices run clear' thing is inconsistent and often leads to dry, overdone chicken that's near impossible to digest with our modified GI tracts without extraordinary discomfort.
 

Once the internal temprature of your bird reaches 165 F, remove from the smoker, cover in foil, and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes before digging in. You'll love this chicken, and so will all of your 'unmodified' friends 

 

Note: with this recipe, you CAN eat the skin, you should eat the skin, it's crispy, delicious and, in the right quantity, quite good for you. Just limit yourself to the portion of the skin on your individual serving of chicken. And if your smoker temperature was too low to get the skin crispy, or if you just get sick of waiting, it's perfectly okay after at least 1 full hour of smoking to move the bird to a full grill on medium head to finish cooking mead-side up and then flip for 10-60 seconds to crisp up the skin. Just be careful not to burn it. Leftovers are 97% as good as the fresh and make EXCELLENT chicken sandwiches on BariBread.

 

Nutrition (makes 8 servings:

Calories: 163

Fat: 11 g

Carbs: 2 g

Protein: 13 g

Sodium: 591 mg