Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Boned Whole Chicken Stuffed and Rolled on the Ugly Drum Smoker (UDS)

My favorite way to pass a rainy weekend day -- Trying something new on the Ugly Drum Smoker.

The idea of having a chicken entirely free of bones intrigued me. I couldn't decide if the correct term is to "bone" or "debone" a chicken. It turns out there are entire debates on this. That made me laugh a little.

I stumbled upon this YouTube video that made it look so simple. I decided to give it a try.

We'll it was easy. I wasn't quite as efficient and no where near as pretty as the shown on the video, but I was able to manage it without much difficulty.

Here's my little chicken free of all bones.



Because this was entirely new to me, I wanted to keep it simple so I just used stove top stuffing. If I were to do this again, I would find something more "home made" to stuff into the chicken. Here's the stuffing (prepared according to instructions on package) in place.



"Rolled"


Topped with a few strips of bacon and tied

Lightly seasoned with a salt free spice mix and ready for the drum


After about 90 minutes on the Ugly Drum Smoker running at about 300 degrees F, I reached the target internal temp of 165 degrees.




I thought it turned out "OK". It's a little bland. The chicken skin under the bacon was rubbery. I probably should have given more thought to seasoning the outside of the chicken. Maybe with a rub that had some sweetness to it. I thought that it would have enough flavor from the bacon and the smoking process to taste good.