Recipe
For the Brine
1/4 cup Kocher salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 sprig of thyme
1 sprig of rosemary
2 cloves of crushed garlic
2 bay leaves
juice and the peel of 1 lime
4 cups of water
For the Rub
1 tablespoon ground Sichuan peppercorns
1 teaspoon coriander
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon Kocher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground caraway
1 teaspoon ground fennel seeds
Additional
1 4-5 pound chicken
1 can of your favorite beer
Wood chips for smoking
A smoker
Directions
Brining: Bring all the ingredients to a boil in a large pot. Just until everything melts.
Let this cool. Rinse the chicken, remover any excess fat or skin.
Submerge the chicken in the brine. Cover and place in fridge for 24 hours.
Combine all the spices for the rub except the salt. I placed all my spices in my spice grinder and mixed it all up.
Pat your chicken dry with paper towels. Sprinkle on your salt. Let this sit for 30 minutes.
In the mean while, soak your wood chips in half the can of beer. The woodchips has to soak for 30 minutes so it does not burn.
I do not have a smoker. But I do have this neat contraption that simply fill with my wet wood chips and place my meat on top of it and put the entire thing on my gas grill.
Heat your gas grill to 200 degrees.
After 30 minutes, sprinkle on your dry rub generously. Both inside and out of the chicken. Get all the cavities and wings. Fold the wings back so its not flopping around and gets burnt.
Place your chicken to sit on top of your beer can, with half the beer in it. The chicken should be upright.
Place in grill on top of smoker. It took about 2 hours to smoke my chicken. DO not open the, do not mess with the chicken. leave it alone until a thermometer says its internal temp is 165 degrees.
Remove from the heat and let it sit for about 7 minutes, so that the juices redistributes.
Cut or slice up your chicken. I bet its the juiciest you will ever have!
