Testing new flavors on chicken quarters

[Dave R]

I’m on a mission to get a few new flavors in my portfolio. I been running budget friendly experiments on chicken quarters. These were brined over night, rubbing with the new spice blend and smoking on indirect heat on my kettle grill. Towards they end I mop them with more of the spice blend mixed with Coke, and my favorite BBQ sauce. The Coke helps dilute the sauce and builds up a perfect caramelized glaze without burning.

[Dave R]

Dave R

[Dave R]

Dave R

[Joe Hell]

Those look gorgeous! I love chicken…so many flavor combos! Cola can be really good in all sorts of stuff too. Last night I started a brine using 2 qts water, 1/3 cup kosher salt, 1/4 cup demerara sugar, 1 TBL Gigawatt seasoning and 1/2 teaspoon each of garlic and onion powder. I will grill them tonight over charcoal with some apple chunks thrown in for a little smoke.

[Dave R]

Joe Hell very similar to my brine, but in addition I use dark brown sugar, apple juice, and soy sauce. I found the soy sauce adds unami to the flavor profile

[Joe Hell]

Dave R That sounds like a good blend! Soy always makes for a good paring with chicken. Ponzu sauce is a really good one too. It’s like a tangy, citrus forward soy sauce. It’s great!

[Dave R]

Joe Hell
Hey Joe,. I also love ponzu and make my own. Often use it on jerky. Question for you. I read something you wrote about vegetable lethicin on a jerky marinade. Is there a special type you use? I would imagine it would make the jerky really tender and soft. Sorry, I wasn’t able to back-track to your post.

[Joe Hell]

Dave R I don’t remember where I made that comment. It may have been in regards to keeping the solids in suspension? I haven’t tried that method yet. The lecithin I have right now is kind of old and clumpy. I’m not sure what the shelf life is. A buddy mentioned that he has a liquid version that I might have to try. I will post results when I get a chance to get experiment! I think I’m a few weeks out on new jerky stuff. I was hoping to get a few more seasonings to try out!

[Jonathon]

Dave R I went through our advnaced search and checked all of Joes posts for both Lethicin and vegetable and didn’t find anything. I also did a general search for Lethicin and didnt find anything, if you read it here then the post was deleted after that.

I would imagine though that it would have been in one of the posts that we talked about making tender jerky with glycerin? We have a few posts that touch on it:
https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/877/tender-jerky
https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1203/soft-beef-jerky-with-glycerine-and (probably has the most useful information)
https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1047/soft-beef-jerky-without-sugar

[Joe Hell]

Jonathon I couldn’t find anything either but vaguely remember a mention or at least the thought running through my head.

My brined chicken turned out perfectly moist and juicy. The gigawatt wasn’t overpowering by any means but gave a long lasting heat that I really enjoyed. These turned out better than any chicken I have done in the smoker.

[Jonathon]

Joe Hell Yeesh those are good pics and the look delicious. Nice out crispy on the outside and I am sure tender as can be on the inside! Gigawatt is hot but on something like chicken breast with such a low fat content I wouldn’t expect it to overpower. I’ve used gigawatt on both pork and chicken made in the crockpot and both times it came out excellent!

[Dave R]

Jonathon thanks, you are correct. It was vegetable glycerin. Sorry for the confusion.

[Dave R]

Joe Hell nice!