This cook followed the process in the HowToBBQRight by Malcom Reed but was different. Mostly because we did not have their ingredients and also because I thought what we have and use would be better. This turned out well and has a lot of potential as it was as good and much easier than on the kettle over charcoal.

For this first try with this method, we only smoked 4 large legs and 4 large thighs from a 10 lb. bag of leg quarters.

1. Cleaned the quarters of fat and cut the legs from the thighs
2. Sprinkled on table salt to dry brine two days ago.
3. Today,
   1. rinsed the pieces then dried them with paper towels to make for a less mushy smoked skin;
   2. shook on Creole Poultry seasoning, and on one side also added a light sprinkling of 6POGS.
   3. Made a basting liquid of:
      1. 1 C water
      2. 2 T dry Italian seasoning mix
      3. 1/2 C ACV
      4. 1/2 C So Good BBQ sauce
      5. 1T 6POGS
   4. Made a BBQ sauce of:
      1. 1 C So Good BBQ Sauce
      2. 1/2 C ACV
      3. 1 T 6POGS
4. 3:15 – Put the 8 pieces on the Recteq set to Xtreme Smoke for 45 minutes.
5. 4:00 – Turned up the temp to 275°. [This heated them up too fast. Should have been about 250-260°]
6. 4:30 – Moped them with the basting liquid
7. 5:00 – The largest thigh has an IT of 175° near the bone. Lowered the temp to 230 and basted. Put the BBQ sauce on the grill to warm up as Malcom did. [Should have watched it closer or used the phone app and alarm to not let them get to 175°]*
8. 5:15 – Mopped on BBQ sauce mixture
9. 5:30 – Mopped again and IT is 210.* Pulled and wrapped to rest.

Conclusions:

• See bracket notes above for next time.
• The skin was not mushy and much like cooked on the kettle over charcoals.
• For us, the Q sauce could have had more kick.
• Use a Zesty Italian seasoning mix or dressing like in the Hidden Valley packet.
• The finished meat was very moist and the 48-hour dry brine surely contributed to that outcome. Note this was the case despite the high temps. See quote below from Malcom.

‘* Malcom said “keep on cooking until the chicken is done – 165 in the breast and 175 in the dark meat. I really like the wings, legs, and thighs to creep up closer to 200 internal because they stay tender and juicy.” Sooooo, that is why ours did not seem overcooked.

Next time consider the recipe here with the temp set at 400.