Smoked Chicken Quarters on the Pellet Grill
Smoked Chicken Quarters on the Pellet Grill - Felt good to get back to smokin some yardbird parts!! After hitting my MAK 2 Star hard for a year and a half the igniter decided to bite the dust (GFI kept popping when I turned the MAK on). As always, Katrina at MAK took great care of me and immediately sent out a new igniter. The best part, it was free cause my MAK was still covered by the 2 year warranty. Love MAK's customer service ... doesn't get any better than that!!!!
Nothing fancy but the results were outstanding. Rubbed under/on the skin with roasted garlic extra virgin olive oil and seasoned with a light sprinkling of Fagundes Seasoning and McCormick Montreal Chicken Seasoning. Wrapped in plastic and fridged for 4 hours.
Hickory smoked the chicken quarters for 1 hour at 180ºF before bumping the pit temp to 375ºF. Finished the cook at 375ºF until the internal temperature reached 180ºF. Rested the quarters under a foil tent for 10 minutes before serving.
Served with some fried cabbage, mushrooms, and red onions, a side of green salad, and half an avocado.
Tim
Hey there.. Do you feel that you get enough “smoke flavor” with the pellet cooking? I feel I’m always wanting more smoke on it.. Do you have a cure? What do you think of adding a sealer?
smokerpete
Enough “smoke flavor” is a topic that will always be discussed about pellet smoker-grills and is subjective. If you’re a ‘smoke eater’ and are used to the heavy smoke flavors from a wood burning grill, charcoal or electric smoking wet wood chips, or something like a Bradley smoker then you’ll find that a pellet smoker-grill may not provide you with enough smoke flavor. With a pellet smoker-grill you will get a milder, cleaner smoke flavor. There are a few accessories like A-MAZE-N Pellet smoker that allow you to supplement your amount of smoke. But I for one have not seen a need to use one.
Bear in mind that not all pellet smoker-grills are created equal and some produce more clean blue smoke than others. As an example, a MAK 1 and/or 2 Star produces massive amounts of smoke from the smoke setting to the 250ºF+ setting. The best way to infuse smoke flavor is to smoke your protein for something like 45 minutes to 2 hours before increasing the pit temperature to 325ºF+ to finish off the cook.
Unfortunately I do not know what you mean by “What do you think of adding a sealer?”. Not sure what you mean by sealer.
Greg
If you need more smoke in a pellet grill, a cheap smoke tube is the answer. But I find that at lower temps 200 and below the Green Mountain grill imparts PLENTY of smoke flavor to pork, brisket and chicken.
Bonnie StPierre
How long did the cook at 375F take, to reach the 180F internal temp? Would like to plan approximate cooking time for serving guests.
Thanks – this sounds like a good recipe for cooking a bulk package of leg quarters, and then making left-over meals and chicken salad from them too!
Pete Jautaikis
I normally preheat for 20-30 minutes. 1 hour of smoke at 225 degrees and then about 45 minutes at 375 degrees until internal temp reaches 180 degrees. Rest for 10 minutes loosely under a foil tent … Total time – not counting preheat – is about 2 hours. Remember to always cook to internal temperatures.