BBQ Day (Pork Butt & Chicken) and Eliza on July 4

It’s been a while since I had a BBQ day so I smoked a pork butt, a spatchcocked chicken and a half dozen thighs on Thursday in prep for our Friday get-together.  Both meats were rubbed with a 50-50 mix of Billy Bones Original and XXX Cherry.  

The butt went into the 250F smoker at 7am and I covered it with foil at noon at an internal meat temp of 165F, put the whole chicken into the smoker, and increased the smoker temp to 270F.  Ready to cover with foil.

The pork was done at 4pm (9 hr. cook) 

and the whole chicken was done at 5pm (5 hr. cook).  

The thighs went into the smoker at 2pm so they would be ready for supper at 6pm.

I cook my pork butts in a foil pan so I can capture the juices, defat them and mix back with the meat after pulling.  All of this juice goes to waste if just cooked on a smoker rack.

All of the spatchcocked chicken and the uneaten thighs went into pulled chopped chicken and to make it even better, I removed and chopped the rub covered skin and cooked it very low to render the fat and get it crispy.  It was then added to a cup of warm water, poured over and mixed in with the pulled chicken to add more flavor and some moisture.  

Since I cook chicken breasts to only 160F, they will not pull and must be chopped but they are much more moist - same for thighs but cooked to 175F.

Eliza brought her parents down on Jul 4 for dinner and a swim in the big water.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

07/07/22 event date