I usually cook 2 Whole Chickens – left overs are a good thing…

Brine overnight:

• gallon warm water
• 3/4 cup kosher salt
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 bay leaves
• some dry rosemary
• some garlic powder

Dissolve salt and sugar in warm water and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well. Pour into cooler. Add ice to keep it cool. I usually put a large solid ice pack on top to keep the chickens submerged and to add to the cooling. Add more water if chickens aren’t totally submerged.

Day of the Cook

Remove chickens from brine, drain any excess water out, rinse and pat dry with paper towel.

Prep The Grill

Set up the grill for indirect heat at 250. If you want to add smoke I would suggest adding some pre-soaked apple chunks.

Stuffing

• 2 apples (I use 1 red, 1 green but it doesn’t really matter) – Cut up into chunks
• 2 lemons cut up into small chunks
• 1 onion cut up into small chunks
• 6-8 garlic cloves crunched and cut in half
• Some Salt and Pepper

Combine all ingredients into large bowl and coat in olive oil, mix it up. Stuff each chicken until it is full. You will likely have a lot of ‘stuffing’ left over. Discard it – and maybe don’t make as much next time (note to self).

Rub Down the Chickens

Rub

• 3 tablespoons “La Grille” Smoldering Smoked Applewood spice
• 2 tablespoons “La Grille” Montreal Chicken
• 1 tablespoon course salt

Mix all rub ingredients in a bowl. Put a liberal coating of olive oil on the chickens (it will help getting them nice and brown) and then rub down with the rub all over and in the creases. Alternatively you can just use salt and pepper as per the original recipe.

Put on Smoker and insert probes to get meat temperature along the way. You want to put the probe into the deepest part of the thigh without touching bone – this is trickier than it seems and I usually end up poking the crap out of different areas to check temp near the end just to be sure… This usually takes about 3-4.5 hours depending on size of chicken and I have really seen a range of time – usually on the quicker side than I think it should be – hence all the poking and prodding with the probe. You want an internal temperature of 170. Remove the chickens and let sit for 20 minutes. The legs should just pull off without any effort and you will be able to slice the breast as per normal.

This is some damn good chicken: