Smoking

• Grilled Pork Belly
• Pulled Pork
• Wings
• Whole Chicken
• Spatchcock
• Beer can
• Brisket
• Spare Ribs
• BBQ Cupcake Chicken

Grilled Pork Belly

I used pork belly cut into strips (like ~3x12")
      the original implied that you should smoke the whole belly and then slice into strips for grilling

Season with all purpose rub

Smoke at 225 using 2-3 oz cherry until ~160°
      Was not quite as tender as I wanted, I might try going higher next time

Refrigerate overnight or longer

Grill until hot
      Medium heat for longer rather than high heat for short time. High heat made the meat tough
      Takes longer to get hot in the middle than you think

Pulled Pork

~10 lb Boston butt (bone in) no trimming

1. Brine overnight:

   • 1 gallon water

   • 1 cup kosher salt

   • 1 cup brown sugar

   • 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

   • 1 tblsp garlic powder

   • 1 tblsp onion powder

   • 1 tblsp cayenne

   • 2 tsp black pepper

   • 1 tsp #1 Instacure (pink curing salt)

2. Rub with yellow mustard and then pork rub

3. Smoke ~12 hours at ~230° with ~6oz hickory. Put water pan full of apple juice(optional)

4. Rest for at least 30 minutes and up to 4 hours
           I usually double wrap in foil then wrap in an old towel then put that in a cooler
           The meat is usually still at like 175° when I take it out after multiple hours

Wings

My Initial Failure:

Cooked too fast for smoke from 2oz cherry to absorb I think. Maybe try more wood or like hickory instead. Don't remember which brine I used, might have been the pork butt brine, that might be the problem. Flavor was weak and a bit too sweet for me. Maybe try putting them under the broiler or in the air fryer to fix skin?

What I might try in the future:

https://howtobbqright.com/2016/09/19/smoked-party-wings/

Whole Chicken

Spatchcock

~5 lbs chicken

1. Using scissors cut along either side of the backbone and remove
2. Flip the chicken over and press down on the breast (like cpr) to break/detach the breast bone
3. (Optional) Flip the chicken back over and use a small sharp knife to cut out the breast bone

4. Brine Overnight:

   • 1 gallon of cold water (or enough to completely submerge the chicken)
   • 1 cup kosher salt
   • 1 tbs ground black pepper
   • 1 tbs cayenne

5. Let sit in fridge for a few hours after rinsing brine off. Rubbed with olive oil and then the chicken rub

6. Water pan full of beer

7. Smoked on 225° with ~2oz cherry for 3 - 4 hours

Spatchcocking flattens the chicken and allows it to cook much more evenly, but the best part is that it is so much easier to butcher once it is cooked. If you do the optional step of removing the breastbone, you can just cut down the middle and slice off the legs/thighs to easily get four quarter chicken servings rather than trying to carve the breasts from the body

Beer can

~5 lbs chicken

1. Brine Overnight:

   • 1 gallon of cold water (or enough to completely submerge the chicken)
   • 1 cup kosher salt
   • 1 tbs ground black pepper
   • 1 tbs cayenne

2. Let sit in fridge for a few hours after rinsing brine off. Rubbed with olive oil and then the chicken rub

3. Cut the whole top off of the beer can using a can opener

4. Place chicken on to beer can/stand

5. Smoked on 225° with ~2oz cherry for 3 - 4 hours

You can also put extra whole herbs into the beer can to give the chicken some extra flavor like rosemary or thyme

Brisket

10 lbs brisket
First attempt:

• Rinsed off
• mustard
• covered in all purpose seasoning.
• Smoked with ~6oz hickory took just less than 12 hours.
• Rested for 3-3.5 hours in cooler.

little weak on flavor. Might try more seasoning or more wood next time.
also look into separating point and flat

Spare Ribs

Season ribs with rub (no mustard)

Wrapped in plastic wrap, place in fridge overnight

Into smoker @ 225 with 2-3oz hickory

BBQ Cupcake Chicken

Ingredients:

• 12 boneless, skin-on chicken thighs
• ¹/₄  cup BBQ rub
• 1 ¹/₂ sticks (6 oz.) butter
• 2 cups BBQ sauce

Instructions:

• Generously rub the chicken thighs with your favorite rub, coating them thoroughly. Place the thighs on a plate, cover with plastic-wrap, and refrigerate for up to 3 hours. Let the thighs come up to room temperature before smoking.
• Working one at a time, roll a thigh into a ball and place it skin down in one cup of a disposable aluminum muffin tin. It will be a tight squeeze, so press it in as far as you can. Repeat with the rest of the chicken thighs.
• Place a pat of butter on top of each chicken thigh and set the tin in the smoker, uncovered. The smoker should be set to 250^o F
• After 90 minutes, carefully remove the muffin tin and use tongs to carefully turn each of the thighs so the skin is facing up. Return to the smoker for 45-60 minutes, until the thighs reach 165^o F on a meat thermometer.
• Remove from the smoker, place on a serving platter, and let rest 5 minutes.