What We’re Smoking (or Grilling, or Curing)!

Smoking a chicken right now. It probably has been 15 years since I have smoked a chicken. I hope it turns out well or dinner will be just corn and salad.

I usually do brisket, pork loin, and pork shoulders. I'll do ribs a few times a year also. Chicken is so fast, I thought it would be nice to start doing them again.

I went really simple. I spatchcocked the chicken and threw it on. No seasoning, no brining, no nothing.
 
imjustawarrior said:
Smoking a chicken right now. It probably has been 15 years since I have smoked a chicken. I hope it turns out well or dinner will be just corn and salad.

I usually do brisket, pork loin, and pork shoulders. I'll do ribs a few times a year also. Chicken is so fast, I thought it would be nice to start doing them again.

I went really simple. I spatchcocked the chicken and threw it on. No seasoning, no brining, no nothing.
Click to expand...
Nice, I have a Prime brisket going on the smoker Friday morning. Texas style with just salt and pepper rub.
 
aja8888 said:
Nice, I have a Prime brisket going on the smoker Friday morning. Texas style with just salt and pepper rub.
Click to expand...

My Costco use to carry prime briskets. I bought one a couple weeks ago and it was choice. It still was good. Lately, I have liked my paprika based rub. I'm from Tx, so I appreciate the simplicity of salt and pepper.

How did your brisket turn out? Our chicken was good, but I think I prefer grilled chicken.
 
imjustawarrior said:
My Costco use to carry prime briskets. I bought one a couple weeks ago and it was choice. It still was good. Lately, I have liked my paprika based rub. I'm from Tx, so I appreciate the simplicity of salt and pepper.

How did your brisket turn out? Our chicken was good, but I think I prefer grilled chicken.
Click to expand...
Rained out Friday. I have it on the smoker right now and it should be done by tonight when DD and her husband come over.
 
Glad to see this thread pop back up. I’m getting ready to brine and smoke a whole turkey soon. I find brined poultry for smoking so flavorful and juicy that I never skip that step.

Just took some home smoked duck out of the freezer - yum! I spatchcock and dry-brine the whole ducks.

Personally I prefer non-prime briskets. To me the whole point of a long low temperature smoke is to break down a tough cut of meat. I don’t need any extra marbling and to me the non-prime beef is more flavorful. I also buy non-prime ribeye steaks (usually grass finished) - they are already plenty fatty/marbled and I find them more flavorful.
 
audreyh1 said:
Glad to see this thread pop back up. I’m getting ready to brine and smoke a whole turkey soon. I find brined poultry for smoking so flavorful and juicy that I never skip that step.

Just took some home smoked duck out of the freezer - yum! I spatchcock and dry-brine the whole ducks.

Personally I prefer non-prime briskets. To me the whole point of a long low temperature smoke is to break down a tough cut of meat. I don’t need any extra marbling and to me the non-prime beef is more flavorful. I also buy non-prime ribeye steaks (usually grass finished) - they are already plenty fatty/marbled and I find them more flavorful.
Click to expand...
I have tried Choice briskets from H.E.B. and I like those a lot. They even sell partially trimmed ones.
 
One thing I discovered at Costco that is that a lot of the repackaged beef they sell (not the stuff in the original Cryovac) is “tenderized” via deep pokes with metal prongs - they have a machine. I prefer not to have that as it makes meat less safe if you are cooking it to rare/medium rare. It’s fine for beef cooked to higher temps such as beef ribs. But it annoys the heck out of me that they do it to the tri-tips which I like to smoke for a couple of hours and then reverse sear to rare center. So I’m buying my tri-tips from HEB these days.
 
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Brisket now about 4 hours in with the smoke tube finished.

Brisket_4_4_2024.jpg
 
Yeah, ribs are so easy and our HEB Plus! carries some really nice whole spare ribs.
 
I'm a fan of baby back ribs (pork).
I typically mix a heaping tablespoon of Walkerswood jerk seasoning with a little Italian marinade to thin it down and then spread it on top of the rack a bit ahead of time.
Then toss it on the gas grill, low heat, for 45 minutes or so, turning a few times.

The ribs don't need to be fall off the bone tender like some silly restaurants advertise. I have actual teeth...
 
TheWizard said:
I'm a fan of baby back ribs (pork).
I typically mix a heaping tablespoon of Walkerswood jerk seasoning with a little Italian marinade to thin it down and then spread it on top of the rack a bit ahead of time.
Then toss it on the gas grill, low heat, for 45 minutes or so, turning a few times.

The ribs don't need to be fall off the bone tender like some silly restaurants advertise. I have actual teeth...
Click to expand...
Falling off the bone rib meat is over done.
 
TheWizard said:
Perhaps, but I suspect those places might boil the ribs first before putting them on dry heat with an overly sweet sauce...
Click to expand...
Actually, it takes moist heat to get really tender pork, as in pulled pork or Chile Verde. But those are different cuts of meat.
With baby back ribs, in my unfortunate experience, dry overcooking on the grill gets you something closer to charcoal...
?
 
TheWizard said:
I'm a fan of baby back ribs (pork).
I typically mix a heaping tablespoon of Walkerswood jerk seasoning with a little Italian marinade to thin it down and then spread it on top of the rack a bit ahead of time.
Then toss it on the gas grill, low heat, for 45 minutes or so, turning a few times.

The ribs don't need to be fall off the bone tender like some silly restaurants advertise. I have actual teeth...
Click to expand...
A quick story about "fall off the bone ribs" (I probably said this here before)

We were at Rendezvous in Memphis with some friends. The other wife asked if the ribs fell off the bone, without missing a beat, the waiter said "Well, you have to use your teeth". Her husband and I both broke out laughing.

That was the best quick come back from a server I had ever heard.

BTW, the ribs were great.
 
We went to Rendezvous a couple years ago. I was not a fan of their ribs. I liked Central BBQ ribs a lot more.

I'm a fan of low and slow ribs done on a smoker. The meat should pull off clean but not fall off. The connective tissue needs to convert to gelatin. That is what makes BBQ special to me. I usually finish my ribs on a really hot grill to char up the outside.
 
Smoked 2 turkey wings and some chicken wings that looked like T-Rex arms. have were using a chipotle rub. Turned out pretty good for my first time smoking wings.
 

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audreyh1 said:
One thing I discovered at Costco that is that a lot of the repackaged beef they sell (not the stuff in the original Cryovac) is “tenderized” via deep pokes with metal prongs - they have a machine. I prefer not to have that as it makes meat less safe if you are cooking it to rare/medium rare. It’s fine for beef cooked to higher temps such as beef ribs. But it annoys the heck out of me that they do it to the tri-tips which I like to smoke for a couple of hours and then reverse sear to rare center. So I’m buying my tri-tips from HEB these days.
Click to expand...
According to Consumer Reports, ALL their beef is blade tenderized, except for filets and flank steaks.
OTOH, it's done at each individual store, so it hasn't been sitting around long, and IMHO Costco's sanitary practices are second to none. I would be concerned if it happened at the processing plant, but not at a Costco store.
I also read on another forum of a Costco employee confirming that this includes the cryovacs.
Has your steak been mechanically tenderized?
 
braumeister said:
According to Consumer Reports, ALL their beef is blade tenderized, except for filets and flank steaks.
OTOH, it's done at each individual store, so it hasn't been sitting around long, and IMHO Costco's sanitary practices are second to none. I would be concerned if it happened at the processing plant, but not at a Costco store.
I also read on another forum of a Costco employee confirming that this includes the cryovacs.
Has your steak been mechanically tenderized?
Click to expand...
WHAT?! I've been using Costco eye of round to make steak tartare for years. I'm going to have to bring my reading glasses to read the fine print on the labels now.
 
braumeister said:
According to Consumer Reports, ALL their beef is blade tenderized, except for filets and flank steaks.
OTOH, it's done at each individual store, so it hasn't been sitting around long, and IMHO Costco's sanitary practices are second to none. I would be concerned if it happened at the processing plant, but not at a Costco store.
I also read on another forum of a Costco employee confirming that this includes the cryovacs.
Has your steak been mechanically tenderized?
Click to expand...
Yes I know, I’ve seen the blade machine in action at the store.

I hadn’t noticed with the cryovacs. This is easily visible and I did not see it on short ribs or brisket. To me the marks are obvious.

Good point about recently done and clean. But I still prefer my tri-tips not blade tenderized.

Glad they don’t ruin the tenderloin.
 
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