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Chicken
with black olives, goats cheese, and pesto in the Cookshack Smokette
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MainelyDave |
| I
just needed to do something different today. Chicken sounded good, but I
wanted something other than beer can chicken, or buffalo chicken, or lemon-pepper
chicken. Thus, I decided to revisit a previous
smoke with this recipe. |
Click
image to enlarge
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Visited the
local Hannaford Brothers store and got a huge Purdue Oven Stuffer chicken.
This one weighed nearly eight pounds.
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Here's what
I'll be using for ingredients. I was going to inject the wine, but decided
it would be better to drink WITH the chicken. I love Gewurztraminer, very
close to a Reisling, and particularly suited for spicy and/or smoked foods
in my opinion. Serve it real cold.
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| The
process of "pitting" the black olives is tedious, but necessary.
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| After
pitting, I combine the black olives, feta cheese, and pesto sauce in the
processor and let it go. I then take a spoon and stuff it under the skin
of the chicken. I use my fingers to push it throughout. |
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| Then,
I mix up some mayonaise, olive oil, and crushed black pepper, and rub it
all over the bird. Why? I'm not sure. Just trying to keep the bird moist
as I didn't brine it, and perhaps it will help the skin brown a little bit
more. |
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| It's
9:00 a.m. or so, and I crank it up to 250 degrees with 2 ounces of apple
and 2 ounces of cherry wood. |
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| By
12:45, it's done. I'm surprised to see how much the skin has split. Wonder
if all the stuffing caused that? It would have looked nice had the splits
not occurred. Don't be fooled though, the skin is still kind of tough and
leathery. |
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| I
carve a slice. The meat is tender and juicy. |
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| I
plate it up and put some of the stuffing on top. Yummy. A different taste
than most of my other bbq. Neat. The wine pairs well with this dish. |
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Final Conclusions
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A nice meal
for upscale company. Next time I'll see what can be done, if anything,
to keep the skin together. I'd also like to experiment with using tomatoes
part of this - either in the stuffing, or using on the dish when plating.
It would add visual appeal, and also work tastewise, I think. Kind of
like a grecian pizza. In fact, this chicken would be great on a pizza.
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If you have
any questions or comments, send me a message.
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