Can chicken and pork be smoked together using the same recipe?

February 10, 2016 6:03 PM

I'm planning to serve up some BBQ baby back ribs this weekend. It's a recipe I've used several times before, using a Traeger smoker/grill, and people love it! For guests who don't eat pork, I want to offer bone-in chicken breast, and was wondering if the chicken can be cooked using the same process, or will it need a different recipe?

For the ribs, my technique is derived from here.

Summary:
1. Sprinkle a yummy spice mixture over the meat and let it sit overnight.
2. Smoke the ribs for about 4 hours (low heat). After that, refrigerate until guests arrive.
3. Brush BBQ sauce onto ribs, seal in foil packages and grill at 350 for about 45 minutes.

This works great for the pork ribs, and I would prefer to just treat the bone-in-skin-on chicken breasts the same way. Will it turn heavenly as the pork does, or get too dry during the smoking process because of lower fat content? If the latter, any ideas for how to adapt the recipe to chicken with minimal effort? And anything I'm not thinking of?

posted by oxisos to Food & Drink (10 answers total)

In my smoking experience, the chicken parts will not need anywhere near as long, and white meat pieces have a lower tolerance for long cooking. Brining will help but they still won't take as long. Either pull them earlier or start them later.
posted by rtha at 6:11 PM on February 10, 2016 [4 favorites]

One of my go-tos for all things smoking is this guy's youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtKOW_kjcGw He's smoking a whole chicken, so I would think you will want less time, but it's definitely doable. Mainly I'd say get a meat thermometer, and go to 165 like he says, then remove from the grill.
posted by Phredward at 6:11 PM on February 10, 2016

yeah, my only comment is like rtha's: the cook times will almost definitely be different.
posted by k5.user at 6:40 PM on February 10, 2016

Oh, and the chicken parts will definitely not need as long a finish on the grill. They should be mostly or totally cooked when you take them out of the smoker, so the grilling portion of things should serve only to bring them back up to heat and crisp the skin and caramelize the sauce. (I would probably start them in foil on the grill to heat them - maybe 10 or 15 minutes, max? - and then put them over direct heat to crisp and caramelize. There is still a risk they will dry out. Thighs are much more forgiving!)
posted by rtha at 6:51 PM on February 10, 2016

Chicken cooks in the same temperatures and time on the grill as it does in the oven. So if you would normally cook chicken parts in the oven at 375 for 45 minutes, it will be the same on the grill also. Chicken breasts will be wildly overcooked if treated like pork ribs, but you could put them on low and slow long enough to soak up the smoke flavor, and then finish them at higher temps though also for less time than the ribs.

I never cook chicken breasts, but I have had good luck with quite a few recipes and techniques from Amazing Ribs, and they have a large poultry section. You may need to mix and match techniques, but you should be able to make it work.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:13 PM on February 10, 2016

Best answer: We're doing a dish at the restaurant that is (boned) chicken thigh+leg, smoked ~3 hours, sous vide 4 @ 160f, quick roast on pickup. (yes, it melts). I think you should be fine with your approach, just check with thermometer. Bone in beasts take longer than you'd think.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 7:38 PM on February 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

From my experience in cooking for people who don't eat pork for religious reasons they also wouldn't eat chicken that has bee cooked with the pork. Or even eat the chicken if it was cooked with the same utensils as the pork. I had to cook the veggie stuff first, then cook the chicken and then cook the other meat because the chicken cooking would contaminate the vegetarian food and the pork and even the beef of unknown halal provenance would contaminate anything that was cooked after it. Obviously ymmv but just be aware that sometimes it isn't sufficient for something to just be chicken if it has come in close contact with the "unclean" foods.
posted by koolkat at 2:14 AM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

From my experience 3 hours is about as long as a whole chicken would take and that is doing it on a beer can, so it stays moist. I would think that after that long, the white breast meat would dry out and or toughen up. Also, my experience always includes a water pan to help things from drying out. Thighs are a very different animal.
posted by Amby72 at 11:49 AM on February 11, 2016

Response by poster: I smoked the chicken for about 4 hours right alongside the pork, at about 135°. The chicken hadn't reached 165° by then, but I finished them both off in foil in the oven at 400 for another half hour, and it was a success! Next time I will probably put more spice rub on the chicken, so it can absorb even more flavor.
posted by oxisos at 10:45 PM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm no physicist or Alton Brown but, nothing cooked at 135 will ever hit 165.

Glad it worked out!
posted by raider at 7:03 PM on February 16, 2016