Meal No. 1839: BBQ Chicken Soup

When I made beer can chickens on the kamado grill this past Saturday, it was not only for dinner that night. I also looked forward to using the rest of the deboned smoked chicken in a huge batch of barbecue chicken soup, which is simply amazing. That's what I served up on Memorial Day, and that was the first opportunity for regular houseguest Jeremy to partake of that concoction. It seems he liked it well enough to take a couple of containers back up to Virginia at the end of his visit to the Roediger House.

Kamado Meal #35B

---

"Chicken on a Throne," from Smoke & Spice by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. Boston: The Harvard Common Press (2003), p. 171-173.

"BBQ Chicken Soup," from the folks at the Big Green Egg website.

Meal No. 1837: Chickens on a Throne

Saturday was gorgeous, and it proved to be just the right day for a bit of kamado grill action. I'd bought two organic young chickens with a plan to put them on the kamado grill sometime during the week, and although I had to finish them in the oven, they still turned out fantastic. Dipped in some Alabama great white sauce and accompanied by lima beans and buttered corn, it was a glorious early-summer weekend repast.

Kamado Meal #35A

---

"Chicken on a Throne" (p. 171-173) and "Alabama Great White Sauce" (p. 362). In Smoke & Spice, by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. Boston: The Harvard Common Press, 2003.

Meal No. 1629: BBQ Chicken Soup

While it's true that I used the fine weather of Labor Day Monday (and the accompanying day off) to put a couple of beercan chickens on the kamado grill, the real plan was to use most of the meat in the amazing BBQ chicken soup that I'm glad I was introduced to. So while some of that chicken was part of Monday night's simple repast, the bulk of it showed up in steaming savory spicy bowls of goodness that pleased multiple bellies at the Roediger House dinner table on Tuesday.

Kamado Meal #34B

---

"Chicken on a Throne," from Smoke & Spice by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. Boston: The Harvard Common Press (2003), p. 171-173.

"BBQ Chicken Soup," from the folks at the Big Green Egg website.

Meal No. 1628: Chicken on a Throne

I reckon Labor Day is supposed to finish closing the door on summertime, although school starting up takes the first angry whack at killing these beloved dog days. In Winston-Salem, Monday was a glorious day off with clear sunny skies and gentle breezes and just enough heat in the air to still feel like the lazy good times of the treasured estival season. I ain't scared of Fall just yet, but I surrender to the certainty of its impending arrival.

So how did I spend that day off? Firing up the kamado grill for the first time since January, and putting two chickens on thrones in there to smoke away the perfect holiday afternoon. In truth, I only wanted to harvest a small part of those chickens, enough to go along with the previous evening's leftover homemade potato salad, slaw, and honey barbecue sauce. The real motive was to employ most of this terrifically tasty chicken in a warm and hearty batch of BBQ chicken soup, when company was due to come on Tuesday night.

Kamado Meal #34A

---

"Chicken on a Throne," from Smoke & Spice by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. Boston: The Harvard Common Press (2003), p. 171-173.

Meal No. 1465: Barbecue Chicken Soup

When Thursday brought mostly sunny skies and, comparatively speaking, the relative warmth of mid-40s temps, it made for a good day to smoke a couple of beer can chickens on the kamado grill in anticipation of the pending snowstorm promised for the weekend.

I finally broke out the BBQ Guru CyberQ WiFi temperature control gizmo that I recently got. Not only does it monitor and report how the pit and the food are doing, but it also includes a powered fan to help maintain pretty precise temperatures throughout the smoking process.

And you can monitor and adjust it from your laptop or smartphone, which is mighty awesome.

Smoking whole chickens has proven to be a mixed bag for me, with the dual problems of considerably longer cooking times than most recipes suggest, and keeping the fire/coals going for that long process. The CyberQ sure helps with the second dilemma, but I still need a solution to the eternal smoke time to get up to temperature. I put the chickens on Thursday at about 3:30 in the afternoon. At midnight, they were still 30 degrees shy of done, so I gave up on the kamado and put them in the oven to finish off. By the time they'd cooled a bit and I could debone them, it was almost 1:45 am!

I say this only in retrospect, I'm sure, but I reckon it's worth it when you taste how good that chicken is as the hearty main feature of BBQ chicken soup:

It was perfect, on a cosmic scale, for overcoming the bitter disappointment of getting almost all sleet instead of the foot of snow we were promised this weekend.

And there was a ton of it left for sharing...

Kamado Meal #33

---

"Chicken on a Throne," from Smoke & Spice by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. Boston: The Harvard Common Press (2003), p. 171-173.

"BBQ Chicken Soup," from the folks at the Big Green Egg website.

Meal No. 1430: Barbecue Chicken Soup

Part of my thinking in getting two whole chickens to put on the kamado grill was so that I could make the incredible barbecue chicken soup.

So when I was still on Thanksgiving vacation last Tuesday, and with the weather wet and quite chilly, I went to work on preparing a batch using the chickens I'd smoked on Sunday night prior.

Wow. The potent and full combination of flavors and sensations makes this a soup you can't quite get enough of.  I reckon you oughta click that link below and go see for yourself what it's all about.

Kamado Meal #32

---

"Chicken on a Throne," from Smoke & Spice by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. Boston: The Harvard Common Press (2003), p. 171-173.

"BBQ Chicken Soup," from the folks at the Big Green Egg website.

"Granny Wilson's Cornbread," a recipe shared with me by Linda B. Dunlap.

Meal No. 1428: Chicken on a Throne

Even though Chicken on a Throne was on the menu about ten meals ago, the beautiful weather of the Thanksgiving weekend was a great enticement to put the kamado grill to work again. I had picked up a couple of chickens at Costco and was looking forward to another round of "beer butt chicken."

If Meal No. 1418 was a relative breeze (after a nearly 18-month hiatus from the kamado!), such was not the case last Sunday.

Smoking meats on this grill leads to an incredible result, but you have to have patience and mental fortitude for a finicky and touch-and-go process sometimes. For instance, it took about three-and-a-half hours to get the smoker temperature exactly right, including a snuff-out and restart of the coals. Then, it petered out again after just under three hours, and I finished the chickens on the gas grill with foil-wrapped applewood chips to keep the smoking going.

Ah, but the outcome! Delicious, moist, flavorful, melt-in-your-mouth...

Kamado Meal #31

---

"Chicken on a Throne" (p. 171-173) and "Alabama Great White Sauce" (p. 362). In Smoke & Spice, by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. Boston: The Harvard Common Press, 2003.

Meal No. 1418: Chicken on a Throne

I haven't made this meal since June 2014. I haven't even used the kamado grill since then. I guess I was getting really frustrated with two or three occasions either of really slow cooking meals, or problems keeping the charcoal going. When my remote temperature gauge crapped out on me, I'd just had enough.

But a week ago Sunday (I am quite behind on blog entries!), I took advantage of a combination of lovely weather and a tad more gumption than usual, and I put the kamado back to work.

This is politely called "Chicken on a Throne," or less politely: beer can chicken. Either way, I call it mighty tasty when it comes out right!

Kamado Meal #30

---

"Chicken on a Throne" (p. 171-173) and "Alabama Great White Sauce" (p. 362). In Smoke & Spice, by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. Boston: The Harvard Common Press, 2003.

Meal No. 1022: Chicken on a Throne

The Roediger House is in the middle of its annual summer visit by friend, colleague, and former student Tim Schwarz, who teaches down in New Orleans. This evening, the meal was also a chance to bring in one of his fellow Wake Forest graduate students, Bradley Phillis, who's back in town for the summer to teach at the Governor's School.

I figured a special kamado grill meal was in order, and set to work on chicken on a throne. Which is supposed to cook in only about four hours.

And which didn't finish cooking until after about seven hours. So we ate in two shifts: first, the macaroni and cheese and lima beans at the intended dinner time:

Then, around 10:30, when the chicken was finally cooked properly, we also served ourselves a sampling of it, with Alabama Great White Sauce to bolster its goodness.

Then, Tim and I enjoyed several meals off the leftovers. It's hard to beat a chicken sandwich slathered with more of that white sauce, when lunchtime rolls around.

Kamado Meal #29

---

"Chicken on a Throne" (p. 171-173), "Old-Fashioned High-Cholesterol Great-Tasting Southern Sauce" (p. 351), and "Alabama Great White Sauce" (p. 362). In Smoke & Spice, by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. Boston: The Harvard Common Press, 2003.

"Best Potluck Macaroni and Cheese," from Cook's Country, April/May 2007, p. 11.

Meal No. 998: Chicken on a Throne

Kamado Meal No. 28

---

"Chicken on a Throne" (p. 171-173), with "Alabama Great White Sauce" (p. 362). In Smoke & Spice, by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. Boston: The Harvard Common Press, 2003.

Meal No. 988: The Renowned Mr. Brown

I started the kamado smoker just before midnight. The picture above was taken around 1:30 am...it was a gorgeous spring night.

The Boston butt was a beautiful sight when I brought it in off the grill, and it turned into very flavorful pulled pork barbecue. I went with a standard tangy sauce, made from scratch. The mac-n-cheese was way too cheesy but you couldn't beat its flavor.

Kamado Meal No. 27

---

"The Renowned Mr. Brown" (p. 53-54). In Smoke & Spice, by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. Boston: The Harvard Common Press, 2003.

"Sweet and Tangy Barbecue Sauce," by Bryan Roof. In Cook's Illustrated, January & February 2010 (No. 102), p. 6-7.

"Best Potluck Macaroni and Cheese," from Cook's Country, April/May 2007, p. 11.

Meal No. 980: Braggin' Rights Brisket

Kamado Meal No. 26

---

"Braggin' Rights Brisket" (p. 105-106). In Smoke & Spice, by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. Boston: The Harvard Common Press, 2003.

Meal No. 950: Barbecued Chicken

This is my second attempt at making grilled barbecue chicken, with a simple homemade spice rub and a homemade barbecue sauce. My previous version was a real hit, which was Meal No. 769.

This was one of those nights where I was horrible about making the clock work to my advantage. So the crew of four that was anticipating supper did not get it until after 10 o'clock. It slowed me down a bit to try making this meal on the kamado grill, instead of the gas grill. I didn't get the homemade barbecue sauce started early enough. But when it was all said and done, I felt like I dished up a pretty decent meal for everybody.

Kamado Meal No. 25

---

From Bon Appétit, July 2013:

• "The Definitive Guide to Grilling Crisp, Juicy Chicken," by Meryl Rothstein, p. 64ff.
• "Barbecued Chicken," by Alison Roman, p. 70.
• "4-3-2-1 Rub," by Alison Roman, p. 68.

Meal No. 942: BBQ Chicken Soup

I put not one but two chickens on thrones a couple of nights ago for Meal No. 940, when I fired up the kamado grill for the first time in quite a while. This was not only because they come in packages of two at Costco but also because I wanted enough cooked chicken to whip up a batch of BBQ chicken soup. That's what I did for the evening meal last night.

This recipe is a cacophonous symphony of delicious flavors with a bit of heat thrown in, and it's unlike any other soup or stew I've ever had.

I used Linda Dunlap's recipe for "Granny Wilson's Honey Wheat Cornbread," which went over quite well with the crew on hand:

Since several people were coming over, including college suitemate and good friend Ronnie Hall, I tried to gussy up the meal with a Swiss and bacon dip appetizer:

I also tried out two new dessert recipes:

Yogurt Sherbet, or what we call around here: EuroYogurt

Duke's Chocolate Cake

Also Known As: Mayonnaise Cake
(Also: I'm not going to be known for pretty cakes.)

I went with a cream cheese icing, just because.

---

"Chicken on a Throne," from Smoke & Spice by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. Boston: The Harvard Common Press (2003), p. 171-173.

"BBQ Chicken Soup," from the folks at the Big Green Egg website.

"Granny Wilson's Cornbread," a recipe shared with me by Linda B. Dunlap.

"Swiss and Bacon Dip," from Rachael Ray. Available online at the Food Network website.

"Lucques' Yogurt Sherbet," from Lucques Restaurant in Los Angeles. Recipe printed in the Los Angeles Times.

"Duke's Chocolate Cake," from the Duke's Mayonnaise website. Adapted version from Deb Lindsey published in the Washington Post.

Meal No. 940: Chicken on a Throne

For the Saturday meal and a small gathering of folks at the Roediger House last night, the choice was chicken on a throne, using the kamado grill while enjoying the mid-60s weather that graced us the day following a sleet and snow event.

Kamado Meal #24

---

"Chicken on a Throne" (p. 171-173), "Old-Fashioned High-Cholesterol Great-Tasting Southern Sauce" (p. 351), and "Alabama Great White Sauce" (p. 362). In Smoke & Spice, by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. Boston: The Harvard Common Press, 2003.

Meal No. 884: The Renowned Mr. Brown

It's always one of the joys of the Christmas holiday to catch up with former 7th grade student Brendan Shanley and his folks, Carol and Fred Wood. For the last however many years, that's usually involved me visiting them in the neighborhood across the street from Leesville Road Middle School, where I taught Brendan. Carol is a teacher at the adjoining Leesville Road Elementary School. They're all great folks and I'm glad that they have been so good about keeping in touch and making sure we see each other at least once a year.

This time around, I invited them to make the journey over to Winston-Salem, and they graciously agreed. Brendan hadn't been here since before the house renovation and addition, and Carol and Fred had last been here when the construction was underway...but nobody had seen the finished product. Carol made a wonderful UNC housewarming gift, which is already hanging up in the main hallway:

For our dinner, I fired up the kamado grill late last night and tossed onto it two 7-pound Boston butt pork shoulders (which had gotten an initial rub of Southern Succor Rub even the night before that!).

The smoker did its job overnight and all day long today. I kept an eye on it, trying to maintain the smoking temp at around 200°F.

Our appetizers tonight included my version of pimento cheese and Rachael Ray's take on a warm bacon dip. The bacon dip was the hands-down favorite.

With the smoked pork shoulders, we had coleslaw (without the blue cheese) and smashed sweet potatoes. I gave them a choice between two possible barbecue sauces: an Eastern North Carolina vinegar-based sauce, and a tomato/ketchup-based sauce that's more akin to what we might get here in the Piedmont region. Looks like the Piedmont-style was the clear winner this evening.

Desserts were chosen from the broad sampling of Christmas goodies on hand: date nut balls, fudge, sugar peanuts, and the last of this past Sunday's carrot cake. Brendan brought a home-made pound cake, which was moist and delicious.

The evening had to end too soon, but it was a long drive for them back over to Raleigh and Fred has to be at work tomorrow morning.

Kamado Meal #23

---

"The Renowned Mr. Brown" (p. 53-54) and "Vaunted Vinegar Sauce" (p. 349). In Smoke & Spice, by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. Boston: The Harvard Common Press, 2003.

"Sweet and Tangy Barbecue Sauce," by Bryan Roof. In Cook's Illustrated, January & February 2010 (No. 102), p. 6-7.

"Swiss and Bacon Dip," from Rachael Ray. Available online at the Food Network website.

"South Carolina-Style Pimento Cheese." Recipe worked out by me, based on Sharon's Palmetto Pimento Cheese.

"Blue Cheese Coleslaw," from Ina Garten. Available online at the Food Network website.

"Smashed Sweet Potatoes" (p. 128), in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC, 2011.