Smoked Chicken/Turkey and Pork

I love smoking meat. I usually fire up my smoker once a month to fill my fridge and freezer for the next couple/few weeks. Tonight, I did two turkey legs, three chicken leg quarters, a pork loin and two pork chops.

While the lump charcoal heats and the wood chips (apple and a little hickory) soak, I put a rub on the meat.

My standard rub is:

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Sea Salt

Black Pepper

Paprika

I don’t use cumin, unless it’s for ribs.

I often will mix in some pre-made blend, such as Toni’s Cajun, or Montreal Steak. Depending what I have around. Tonight I used a fair amount of Mrs. Dash.

My goal is to usually smoke my meat for 2 hours and then to finish over a low gas grill. If I’m doing a Boston Butt, I start that 4 hours earlier. For this mix, 2 hours and less than an hour to finish is good.

If I do ribs, I wrap them up in parchment and foil after an hour, so they don’t get too smokey, and stay nice and moist.

For this batch, when they are at 160° I pull them and let them come to 165° on their own. All indications are that they are crispy on the outside and moist on the inside.

Tonight’s dinner will be the chicken with a salad. What I don’t schedule out for the next two nights will be vacuum sealed and go into the freezer for an easy meal later this month.

NOTE: Just ate…one of my best smokes. Mostly apple wood and a little hickory. Smoked for 2 hours then put on a gas grill to finish. All low heat and it melted off the bone, not too smokey, full of flavor. Perfectly moist. I’m eating well this month!