Preparation:
I like the rub a lot. Needs more black pepper, though. To me, the thing that makes this outstanding is the chipotles. And note that these are not the canned ones in adobo - they're dried. This makes their smokiness a bit more intense. You might not be able to find them, so just them out. Same for the red chiles - or you could use cayenne instead. Experiment! Be merry!
The mop wasn't bad, but I'll try something new next time. As far as I'm concerned, it needs more tinkering.
For the trout, the rub consisted only of lemon pepper. The mop was some teriyaki sauce with a little sugar mixed in. That's it!
As far as technique goes, this is what I did:
- Night before: apply rub and pop food back in fridge. - Next day: take food out of fridge and rest for an hour while smoker is coming up to temp (220degF or so). - Put chickens on. Mop after first hour, then every half hour after that. In retrospect, I will not mop this often in the future. Once per hour will probably do me. Total smoking time was about 6 hours. High winds. This was a problem, so your mileage may vary. I did move the birds around so as to get more even heat distribution. Probably did that twice. - Put trout on. Mopped whenever I mopped the chickens. Total smoking time was about 2 hours. - Although the trout was consumed immediately, I let the chickens rest for about an hour afterwards.
I worried more about the chickens than I did about the trout, and I think this affected the flavor - the trout was better! Don't fret too much over this - it's supposed to be fun, right? :^)
So that's it. Comments and musings always welcome. Have a super weekend ev |
