Feasting on Mammoth: Smoked Chicken with Chipotle Mayonnaise

By Stephen Unterberg

Smoked Chicken with Chipotle Mayonnaise

1. Organic chicken legs and thighs
2. poultry seasoning
3. Lemon juice
4. chipotle sauce

I was really excited to try this recipe after I picked up one of Emeril’s endorsed products at Central Market. I can’t remember what it’s called, but it costs around $4 and it consists of an aluminum bag containing some type of flavored wood chips or other smoking agent. This meal was for my birthday with the family and as usual, I was in charge of the cooking. While I would have preferred an all grass fed brisket to slowly cook in the smoking bag for 5 hours, all grocery stores were sold out of grass fed meats, so I went with chicken thighs and legs for this attempt instead. The smoking bag was awesome! I knew the smoke flavor wasn’t going to be too intense since chicken only takes about 35 minutes to cook compared to a slowly braised piece of meat, but the end result was an extremely juicy chicken with a nice hint of smokiness to it, so I will definitely be using these bags again in the future. I highly recommend it for something a little new and different.

First, marinate the chicken on all sides with salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, a bit of chipotle sauce, and lemon juice for 30 minutes at room temperature. Next place the chicken inside the smoking bag. I then decided to puncture a hole in the bag using a meat thermometer and then placed the probe into one of the pieces of chicken as a means of ensuring the perfect doneness. Just to make sure no flavor or juice escaped I placed a small piece of foil around the hole to seal it off. Finally roll the bag up tightly to keep all the flavor and smokiness trapped in the bag while cooking. Follow the instructions on the smoking bag, which includes keeping the grill on high heat for the first 15 minutes of cooking and then finishing off the chicken under a low flame for a slower cooking process. After reaching 155 degrees (5 degrees under the proper internal temperature for chicken) I removed the bag from the grill, placed it in a pan to capture the juice while opening the bag, turned the flame to high on the grill and placed the cooked pieces of chicken back over the high heat to crisp up the skin. This technique worked out perfectly, but the white meat was just a slight bit on the dry side from the extra cooking on the grill to crisp the skin. When I attempt this again, I’ll probably refrain from the extra cooking time to the white meat while sacrificing the crisper skin, to avoid any dryness. Or as another option, you could remove the chicken at about 150 degrees and then place the almost cooked chicken under the broiler to finish off and crisp the skin. This may be more desirable since you won’t have to worry about the skin sticking to anything. Serve chicken along with homemade chipotle mayonnaise – recipe below.

Chipotle Mayonnaise

1. 1 egg yolk
2. 1T Dijon mustard
3. squeeze of lemon juice
4. salt and pepper
5. 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
6. parsely
7. olive oil

Place all ingredients from 1-6 in a blender and pulse until incorporated. Slowly drizzle in olive oil until desired thickness is reached. Refrigerate the mayonnaise before serving to help in the solidifying process. Serve alongside the smoked chicken or any other dish for some added smokiness.

Note: The picture above is actually not from this recipe, but another dish I made for lunch on a previous day (I didn’t take pictures of the smoked chicken). The presentation was very similar and there’s a plain mayonnaise underneath the chicken instead of the chipotle version (everything is identical except for the addition of the chipotles). I just wanted to have an image up for this recipe. Enjoy!