Mix the following in a sauce pan over a medium heat on the stove.
1/2 C honey
2 C ketchup
1 C brewed coffee
2 Tbl Sp Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbl Sp brown mustard
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp chipotle pepper
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/3 C Captain Morgan's Private Stock Rum
Bring to boil and reduce heat to simmer for about 15 mins. and allow to cool.
I used some chicken thighs and smoked them with my rub (listed in the first post) and added 1 tsp of cayenne pepper to bring up the heat. They smoked for an hour with apple wood smoke. After an hour I used the sauce to baste the thighs on both sides and continued to smoke for 30 mins more. And basted a finish coat 5 mins before taking them off the smoker.
In the South we have many traditions. One is to have corn bread, blackeyed peas and greens to celebrate the new year. In addition to this I have made some smoked chicken breasts and thighs.
While the weather is great with the temp in the mid 60's, the wind is blowing hard and making it hard to get the smoker up to temperature. Wind can cause all kinds of trouble when trying to do lo and slow cooking. When the wind kicks up you will need to block it to get the temp up. You need to be able to control the temp or your bbq will not come out correctly. Once you can maintain the temp, you are in control!
Using a basic rub of:
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp curry
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp chili
1 tsp paprika
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 TBL sp kosher salt
Mix the dry rub and give a generous coating to the chicken.
Once the smoker is up to temp then put the chicken in and add the wood chunks for the type of smoke flavor you like. Today I am using pecan chunks.
Sometimes things don't go quite as well as we'd like. That pesky wind managed to keep the smoker from maintaining temp. It kept dropping and would not come up to the 225 degrees needed to make the cook go right. After two hours of frustrating work I threw in the towel. The meat had a good amount of the smoke even tho the temp was too low for safe eating. So inside we go. I got the oven set at 275 and finished the cooking process.
As this is the first cook of the year we'll not let this set the tone for the rest of the year.
Have a Great time this year and keep the fire and smoke rolling!
