Chicken wings can be done in thousands of variations. Buffalo, Garlic, Parmesan, Thai Peanut, Deep-fried, Grilled, Smoked, Baked. They are all delicious when cooked right. I like this recipe because you get a little hint of smoke without being overpowering and the smoke balance the sweetness of the Asian flavors in a great way. It is also a very safe way to cook the wings since you smoke them first and then just finish them over a grill. Sometimes it is hard to get the inside cooked through without scorching the outside. This way none of your guests will risk getting salmonella.

Mix together both the marinade and the glaze. You can add red pepper flakes to both the glaze and marinade if you want the wings more spicy. I use a soy sauce for braising in this marinade. Tends to be a little less salty which works better with wings.

Smoke the wings for about 30-40 minutes at 225 degrees F. Use fruitwood (apple, cherry) for a good mild smoke flavor. You don't want the wings to get too much of a smoke flavor. The wings will still be slightly undercooked but that it is ok since you will finish them on the grill. Toss the wings in the marinade and let them soak for 10-15 minutes. Stir a couple of times to make sure that all the wings gets marinated.

Make sure that the grill is hot and that you have the glaze available. Finish the wings on the grill, make sure that you cook the wings throughout without burning them. Depending on how hot your grill is you can either baste the wings with the glaze or toss them in the glaze when they are finished. You don't want to burn the sugar and honey too much. When the wings are done, sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds and sliced green onions on top. Serve hot!!

Ingredients:
Turkey
Butter 2 lbs
​Chicken Broth 1 Litre
​Oakridge Gamechanger All Purpose Brine
​Favorite Poultry rub -  Butt Kick'n Chicken BBQ Seasoning
​Cheesecloths

A smoked turkey is delicios and a wonderful way of celebrating thanksgiving. Normally I am not fond of turkey, it doesnt have a lot of flavors and you have to serve it with some great gravy or stuffing to make it come alive flavorwise. However, when you smoke it - magic happens. Suddenly, the bird transforms and the rich, juicy white meat has a smoky texture that really elevates the flavor. So how do you reach that smoky flavor without drying out the meat? I have found that you can achieve greatness in two ways. Either spatchcock and cook fast - or wrap the bird in cheesecloth and butter baste throughout the cook (which we will do in this recipe). 

For the best smoked turkey, start with one that’s fresh and minimally processed. Freezing causes cells in the flesh to rupture. When thawed, some of the juices drain out and are lost.
​Start preparing the turkey first. Remove the giblets and the neck from the body cavity and the neck cavity of the bird. Rinse the turkey in cold, running water, making sure to clean the body cavity as well as the outside surfaces. You also want to make sure that remove any excess fat from the edges of the skin but still leave as much of the skin on the bird as possible. It protects the meat from drying as it smokes.  You can also separate the skin from the breast. Doing this allows the brine to reach the breast meat. Next start preparing the brine. I use Oakridge Gamechanger, and you just mix the brine with water.

​MAke sure that the brine is completely dissolved in the water. Place the turkey into the brine. I place it into the brine "head first". If it goes in "feet first", air may become trapped in the body cavity. The brine has to contact every part of the turkey, inside and out. Depending on the size of the turkey, brining can take from 8-24 hours. A ten pound turkey needs about 8 hours in the brine. A fourteen pound bird will need about 12 hours. I just left the bird in the brine overnight. You can overbrine a turkey but if you go a couple of hours over time , it is not an issue. When you have finished brining the turkey, make sure that you wash the bird thoroughly. You want to make sure that all the brine is gone from the cavities.  Next step is optional. For the perfect texture and flavor, let the turkey rest uncovered in the refrigerator for another twelve to twenty four hours. This gives the salt and brine flavorings time to distribute evenly throughout the turkey.

Next we season the turkey. I use Butt Kick'n Chicken BBQ Seasoning, but any of your favorite poultry seasoning will do,
The trick to seasoning a brined turkey is to get the flavors under the skin. Carefully lift the skin and coat the meat with some of the wet rub. Try to completely cover the exposed flesh. Pull the skin back into place after you've seasoned the bird.
Season the outer surface of the turkey with the remaining wet rub. Get into all the nooks and crannies…under the wings and legs. Next, flavor up the inside of the turkey with dry spices. It is now ready for the next step - the cheese cloth wrap.

Melt the butter in a saucepan and when melted add chicken broth. Next, wrap the turkey in cheesecloth. Make sure that you have two layers of cloth covering the whole turkey. It will help keeping the butter on the bird but also prevents burning. Before you add the turkey to the smoker, make sure you baste it all over. Prepare the smoker at 275 degrees Fahrenheit. I use cherry and apple when smoking turkey. The apple gives great flavor and cherry adds a nice color to the bird.Use two or three fist sized chunks, spaced throughout the session…you don't want it to be overpowered with smoke flavor.

Baste the turkey every 30 minutes or so, make sure that you really drench it in butter. The length of the smoke is dependent on the size of the turkey, and normally, it will need to smoke from 30 to 40 minutes per pound. I would, however, rather trust the interior tempretaure measured through the breast - not the length of the cook. 

When the turkey reaches around 140 degrees Fahrenheit, I recommend taking it out, rmove the cheesecloth and sprinkle a second layer of rub. During the smoke so far the butter basting and the cheesecloth will have removed the majority of the rub and I personally thinks the turkey looks too "naked" without another sprinkle of rub. Continue cooking until interior temperature in the breast reaches 160 degrees, remove the turkey from the smoker and let it rest for 10-15 minutes. After the rest, slice and serve!!

Ingredients:
​Skinless Chicken breast
Whole chickens
Your favorite chicken BBQ rub
​Butter - tons of butter
​RM Transglutaminase - I use Moo Gloo
​Dipping sauce - 1/3 BBQ Sauce 1/3 Honey 1/3 Apple juice

Real men don't eat sushi - I remember this slogan from an old Chevy commercial back in my native Sweden. I happen to love sushi - but if you want to make something more meaty - well, maybe you should try Smoked Chicken Rolls. Moist and flavorful rolls of chicken wrapped in chicken skin. Too conduct this little neat trick you will need Meat Glue - Transglutaminase.  Transglutaminase is an enzyme that catalyzes the formation of an isopeptide bond between a free amine group (e.g., protein- or peptide-bound lysine) and the acyl group at the end of the side chain of protein- or peptide-bound glutamine. In plain English - you can glue different cuts of meat together without any strange flavors.

Start with trimming the chicken breast so that they are similar in size. Sprinkle richly on the sides you will connect with each other with Meat Glue. Place the chicken breast opposite each other - so the thin end in one breast connects with the wider end on the other breast. Roll them up so they get a nice log shape in some plastic wrap and keep in refrigerator for at least 8 hours. That is enough time for the meat glue to connect the tissues. 

Carefully tear the skin of the whole chicken and trim the skin so it fits nicely around the chicken breast roll. Sprinkle your favorite chicken rub on the chicken roll and then sprinkle  the backside of the skin with more meat glue. Wrap the skin around the chicken roll and put back in refrigerator for another 8 hours or so. When done, inject breast with some brine and sprinkle outside of skin. You are now ready to start cooking.

Place the rolls in an aluminum pan on a bed of butter. Think 8 tablespoons of butter per roll. Cover the pan with foil and place in smoker on indirect heat 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Cook covered for about 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, open the pan and turn the rolls. Cover again with foil and cook for another 30-45 minutes. In order to get some smoke into your rolls, uncover the pan and smoke the chicken rolls for another 20 minutes at the same temperature. I use a light wood like apple or pecan.

When the chicken rolls are getting to the right temperature - prepare your dipping sauce. I use 1/3 BBQ sauce, 1/3 Honey and 1/3 Apple Juice. Dip the rolls in dipping sauce. Put them back one final time on the smoker to caramelize the sauce.

​When they rolls have a nice orange shine, take them off the smoker, slice and serve!!

Smoking chicken thighs is a messy and tiring process, but when you get it right, there are few things that beats the flavor of succulent and moist chicken with a little heat and a lotta sweet. I prefer to remove the bones - you can enjoy the entire thigh that way - but you can skip that step if you want to save yourself some time.
​

The first thing you have to do is to trim the chicken - you want uniform looking pieces with about the same size. They will cook more evenly and will also look better when you serve. Start with cutting the skin off each thigh. Be careful not to tear the skin.
​After you cut off the skin, cut the thighs in uniform pieces, turn the thigh over and then cut away muscle  along the back of the thigh bone. This is where you can decide if you want to remove the thigh bone or not.

I like to either brine or inject my thighs. You can either use a very simple brine with water, salt and sugar or you can mix your own and try to get some flavor into the chicken thighs. When I inject I use chicken broth and Butcher BBQ Bird Booster and when I make a brine, I normally use water, salt, sugar and some of the Bird Booster. Let the chicken thighs rest in the brine for a couple of hours while you trim the skin.​

Scrape excess fat off the skin. I usually put the skin in the fridge or freezer for a while to make the fat more solid. Then I use a boning knife to cut the fat off first. After I gotten the thick layer of fat removed, I scrape off the rest with my chefs knife. Be careful so you don't tear the skin. You want the skin to be translucent. You want the skin to slightly smaller than the thigh but it should wrap around the skin fully covering the front and most of the back. Season the chicken slightly with your base rub. I like something with a little bit of heat under the skin and for the back of the thigh.

It is now time to reattach the skin to the thigh. I prefer to use meat glue because it will create a stronger bond with the thigh and the skin. Sprinkle about a teaspoon of meat glue inside the piece of skin and sprinkle some on the thigh as well. You don't have to worry about the thigh taking on a weird flavor. Meat glue is flavorless when you cook with it. Wrap the skin around the thigh and the wrap in plastic wrap to make sure that the glue binds effectively. Put in refrigerator for at least 4 hours.
​Put your second rub on top of the skin - I prefer a cherry rub since it will give the thigh a very nice color.

Make sure that the smoker has reach about 250 degrees Fahrenheit. For chicken thighs I use apple or cherry wood chunks for smoke. Make sure that the dirty smoke has worn off and that your smoker has a clean, thin, blue smoke coming out of the chimney. Place the chicken thighs in a pan on top of slices of butter, I use about two tablespoons of butter per thigh. Smoke until you get the thighs up to 160 degrees. Baste frequently with butter. While the thighs are smoking, mix your glaze. I use one third of BBQ sauce, one third of Agave honey and one third apple juice. Sometimes I put in a couple of other things to add flavor - like a fruit jelly or seedless marmalade. When the thighs reaches  160 degree - dip them in the glaze and return to the smoker. Smoke until they reach 165 and the glaze gets a little bit caramelized. Take them off the smoker and then let them sit under some foil and rest. Let them rest for about 10 minutes. 

After the thighs are done resting - you should have some extremely moist chicken thighs with a wonderful bite-thru skin. A little smoke, a little heat and a lotta sweet - just like a chicken thigh should taste!!