Easy Roasted Whole Chicken Recipe

[hoovesq]

I had a very successful cook tonight, so I thought I would share the recipe/prep. It's a fairly straightforward variation of the standard whole chicken on a kamado recipe, so this recipe is basically about what to stuff in the bird.

Here's what you'll need:
Whole Chicken
1 Lemon
Bay leaves
whole cloves
pepper kernels
kosher salt, or other course salt

Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Empty the cavity. Cut the lemon in half and stuff one half all the way in the back of the cavity, with the cut side facing into the chicken. Stuff 3-4 bay leaves, half-table spoon of pepper kernels, 4-5 whole cloves, and a tablespoon of the salt into the cavity. Put in the other half lemon to close it up.

Truss the chicken. You could probably do without this, but I think it helps the ingredients inside the cavity cook into the bird instead of venting out. Here's a link on how to do it: http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/chicke ... hicken.htm

Coat the skin of the bird with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Don't worry about stuffing anything under the skin.

Fire up your kamado, shooting for 360-380. Add two or three fist size chunks of hickory or smoking wood of your choice. Some people have reservations about using this much wood to cook a chicken because chicken absorbs smoke so fast. I used two tonight and it was fine. Cook until the internal temp near the thigh is 165. 1 to 1.5 hours.

Nothing too complicated, but if like me, you're getting worn out on the standard chicken barbeque rubs, this aromatic variation lets the flavor of the bird shine.

Pro-tip: if you're using a wired probe thermometer, do not let the cord run above where you've placed the wood chunks. One of my hickory chunks caught fire and melted the cord on a really nice All-Clad probe.

[IrvinF]

I tried a new method cooking half chickens. Never put the skin side down before but this worked great for me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB_go0ltJXI

Wish I had one of those cookers sitting on my deck. It may just be big enough for my wife and me.

[S60]

This is the double pack from Sam's, 5.5 pounds each. Salt and pepper only. Around 375 F for about 1 hour 20 minutes on the Akorn. Thigh at 175, breast was 168.

[MarkM2]

Looks good and tasty to me!

[Marty]

S60 --it looks real good to me. I did not realize that you can do two whole chickens on the AKORN vertical at the same time.

What brand of roasting stand is that---I like the built in pan to catch the drippings.

[S60]

Thanks. The roaster is the Kingsford Chicken Roaster on Amazon for $7. There are others on Amazon that have pans to catch the juices but they are either more expensive or not stainless steel. Two chickens was a tight fit. I had to put the two chickens close to each other in the center of the grate to avoid the lid closing on the chickens and I trimmed off the bit of neck bone sticking out the top of the chickens. But both fit and I rotated the pans 180 degrees after 45 minutes to get even exposure on all side of the chicken. The pans cleaned up nicely in the dishwasher. I would definitely do it again. The meat was very moist with a hint of smoke. I didn’t use any chips, just the lump charcoal. I did not use a can of beer either, as I read that does not do much.