Smoked Whole Chicken with Cherry Dipping Sauce
Cherries have so plentiful, of great quality and CHEAP this year. I love cherries so I’ve been playing with them in, and out, of the kitchen. This recipe is outside with the smoker. I made a Rice with Garlic Butter and Parsley side to go with the Smoke Roasted Corn on the Cob I found this amazing product. It’s like PAM only Duck Fat! Cornhusker Kitchen Gourmet Duck Fat Spray. I use it for everything that needs a little oil…
Ingredients
Smoked Chicken
1 -5/6lb Whole Chicken*
12-15 Whole Cherries – Destemmed, pits in
Cornhusker Kitchen Gourmet Duck Fat Spray
Lawry’s Season Salt (my preference. Any season salt is fine)
Butt Cavity Stand
50/50 mix of Cherry and Apple wood chips. Enough to smoke for at least 30 minutes. Longer is fine, but the smoke should not make the food taste ashy. Soak it heavily. At least an hour. This will produce a nice smudge smoke.
Method:
Preheat smoker to 400F. Remove giblets set aside. Wash the chicken carcass thoroughly inside and out, then paper towel dry. I have a wire cavity stand, but a cut down beer or soup can may be used. The point is to let the chicken fat drip down from the skin to flavor the meat. This fat will be used in the sauce later so don’t throw it away.
Put the chicken on the stand and into a small roasting pan. I used a ½ sheet pan which worked fine. From the top neck cavity opening, stuff the whole cherries into the body until the cavity is full. If it takes more than 15, keep stuffing. Less is okay too. This is basically like stuffing.
Spray the exterior of the bird with the Duck spray, then lightly, to taste, dust the bird with season salt. This is not meant to be a dense coating.
Place in Smoker and smoker roast for 1.5 hours. Internal temp should be 160F or juices run clear as they say in the cookbooks. Remove from smoker and tray reserving fat and drippings. Let rest 15 minutes before carving. Serve with dipping sauce on the side.
* A roasting chicken is best, but a whole fryer is fine. The breasts will be a little tougher on the fryer, but with the dipping sauce, we didn’t care!
Cherry Dipping Sauce
Giblets from Chicken
12 - Whole Cherries destemmed, pits in
2 TBL - Worcestershire Sauce
2C - Chicken Stock. Not Broth. Too many other things in broth
2 Tsp - Dry Chinese Mustard. This is REALLY hot mustard
½ Tsp - White Pepper
1 TBL - Truffle Oil – It doesn’t have to be expensive stuff. This works well in so many things it's a great basic cupboard item.
You don't use much at a time and it goes a long way.
1 TBL - Reserved Chicken Fat
1 TBL -Flour
2TBL - Milk
Reserved drippings – separated to remove the fat as much as possible.
Place first 7 ingredients into a sauce pan. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 1.5 hours. As long as the bird is in the smoker. Use a potato masher half way through to break up the cherries and giblets a bit. When the bird is removed from the Smoker, pull the sauce and drain it through a sieve into a bowl. Don’t worry about filtering it. You just want to get the big bits. Eat the giblets for a taste of things to come...
In the same saucepan, add the flour and chicken fat to make a roux over medium heat. Add the Reserved drippings. Cook for a minute, then add the sauce from the bowl, whisking while it comes to a simmer and check for thickness. Add milk to finish and, in fact, the sauce should be glossy and pour a little like whole milk.
Remove from heat and keep warm until ready toserve. Pour into small side dishes suitable for dipping.
Rice with Garlic Butter and Parsley
(Make about ½ hour before serving)
4 cups liquid
2 C - Long Grain Rice
3 - Large Garlic Cloves, finely minced
1/2C - Melted Butter
2TBL - Parlsey. I prefer fresh, but dried will do. Use 1.5Tsp dried.
The basic recipe ratio for rice is 2 to 1. 2 cups liquid to 1 cup rice. I say liquid because you can use any type of flavored liquid generally. Stock, broth, etc. Since this is a chicken recipe, feel free to use Chicken Stock.
Add garlic to a small pan over medium high heat and fry for about 30 seconds to bring out the aroma. Remove from heat and add the butter. Let steep until rice is done.
Once rice is finished, add garlic butter and parsley. Fluff to mix. Cover and let stand until ready to serve.
Smoke Roasted Corn on the Cob
Enough corn for 1-2 ears per person
Soak well in water until husk is wet through. Put in smoker when you put the chicken in. and smoke for at least 1 hour. The husk should be fairly dry and pulling back from tip when it’s ready. Remove from smoker, leave in husk, cover in foil while Chicken rests and sauce is finished.
Make extra garlic butter and brush it on after removing the husk. The corn is great without, but...you can never have enough garlic!
We strip the bird and serve the meat boneless. Put a pile of meat on the plate, a dish of sauce, some rice and corn. We dip the chicken in the sauce rather than pour over, but that’s a personal preference.
Good eats, folks!
