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I brined the chicken legs overnight using a slapdash mixture of pomegranate juice, allspice berries, mustard seeds, honey, salt, and water. The next morning, I smoked them using alder chips for about two hours before serving. The color was gorgeous--looked more like a cherry/walnut wood varnish. Great flavor, the kind that can't be duplicated merely by slapping on McSmokehouse BBQ Sauce™. In fact, this chicken needed nothing else added to it. I even left the hot sauces in their respective hazmat containment units.
I opened a random purchase, the 2007 Lost Angel Muscat Canelli from Eos Estate Winery in Paso Robles, California. $14, 11.5% abv. Honey and apricot aroma, with a touch of pineapple. The flavor is medium sweet, and a veritable fruit salad: peach, cantaloupe, a little banana, and a final burst of lemony acidity. It's sweeter than what I normally prefer, but was a fun change of pace, and an interesting contrast after trying a dry implementation of the grape.
2 comments:
That chicken looks fantastic and I can see how something with some sweetness would be a nice contrast.
Sam,
I love smoking chicken. It's quick and easy, and you can play around with flavors. Typically I like to use fruit woods for the smoke (cherry, apple), but sometimes it's nice to get a another type of wood involved.
The traditional Southern accompaniment here would be sweet tea, with a sugar content approaching that of pancake syrup. But a not-terribly-sweet Muscat was a pleasant substitution.
Cheers,
Benito
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