Smoke-O-Licious!!!

Last Saturday I went a little crazy... I smoked just about everything in my house that I could think of. OK, not like a "cigarrette," but more like "meat."

For quite some time, I've thought about getting into the "smoked" method of cooking. For those that don't know, smoking is a slower and longer process than grilling. The temperatures are a lot lower, and the goal is to produce a lot of smoke and steam to add flavor to your meats.

So I went to WAL-MART on Friday and bought a cheap smoker for $28. It's the Brinkman "Smoke N Grill" that you see here. It has 2 grills to place the meat products on, a water pan, and then a charcoal pan at the bottom.

My main reason for "smoking" was to smoke a brisket. But before I got it home, I perused the meat section and bought a whole chicken ($4), sausage, and chicken breasts.

Putting this together took about an hour. No big deal. It's small enough that I did it in my living room - and avoiding the 105 degree temps we've been having!

On Saturday, I began getting everything ready. I used lime juice to season the brisket and the chicken, as well as an assortment of onions, salt, pepper, garlic, and other seasonings. For the chicken I added one extra ingredient - beer! I let everything marinate for about two hours. (NOTE: Looking back, I probably should have done this Friday and let it marinate overnight.)

After building the fire, I placed the brisket and chicken on separate grills. The smoke was crazy! I thought if my neighbors were looking, they might think there was a REAL fire behind my house!

I noticed after 2 hours that I was going to have some problems. First, the fire would have to be "re-fueled." This means I needed access to the fire bowl to add more charcoal and wood (I was using oak). Second, this same fire bowl seemed to just hold all of the ash... which means it was smothering the hot coals.

Anyway, I had to make numerous adjustments throughout the day as I cooked everything. I also had picked out a nice looking slab of brisket, but later discovered the meat should have more fat on it. This led to the meat being flavorful, but too tough to chew. Let's just say my jaw muscles got sore!

Now the chicken turned out amazingly good! It was probably the best I've ever had. One other thing I did was to add beer into the water bowl (half beer/half water). This meant I had a nice "beer steam" flowing up through my meats.

Along with the chicken and the brisket, I also smoked: Boudain, sausage, brats, and 2 chicken breasts. Why so much? Here's my reasoning:

Boudain: I've been wanting to grill it for a while, so why not try it smoked?
Sausage: I will freeze this for now, but later cut it up and use it in my pasta sauces.
Brats: Hot dogs anyone? Easy to throw one in the microwave for a quick meal.
Chicken breasts: Cut them up and added to pasta that I'm eating for my lunches.

I'm still eating on the smoked chicken and brisket this week. However, after doing a little searching, I found someone who has modified their Brinkmann smoker that I think is going to be a worth-while project for yours truly.

Here is what I plan to do:

Link