Nowadays, the alarm is set and as soon as that phone goes off with that annoying chime, I’m up, dressed, and out the door before 5 a.m. It also helps that my cats have gotten used to me waking up about this time and receiving their food. So, if I ever forget to set my alarm, they usually prod me to get up and get them their food.
Why am I telling you this?
Because on this Saturday morning, I had every intention of making a brisket. It was one larger than I normally do, so I knew I needed to get up at 4 a.m. and have the meat on the smoker between 5 and 5:30 a.m. This looked like a 10-hour minimum job.
Given my regimen for getting up around that time and knowing that the cats would nudge me, I intentionally didn’t set my alarm. Coincidentally, this is the morning my cat Bowie seemed satisfied and let me sleep until 6 a.m.
When I realized what time it was when I awoke, I knew my brisket plan was shot. Time to improvise.
Straight to My Thighs
I began looking through a few of my barbecue cookbooks and searching on YouTube for a dish I could make in a few hours. I knew that would probably be chicken of some sort. Luckily, my old reliable came through for me: Malcolm Reed (no relation) of How To BBQ Right had a video on making competition-style chicken thighs. Perfect.
I went to the store, found the biggest chicken thighs I could, bought an aluminum pan, and started prepping.
First, I trimmed the thighs. This was my first attempt at competition-style thighs, so I did the best I could given the videos I’ve watched on the process. Satisfied with my amateur effort, I put them in the pan upside down and applied my rub. It was a Cajun-style rub I found in one of my cookbooks:
- 2 Tbsp Kosher salt
- 2 Tbsp Paprika
- 2 tsp dried thyme
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp dried onion
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 bay leaf, ground
Flavorful, and despite being Cajun-style, not to spicy or hot.
Then they went into the fridge for about three hours. After the elapsed time, I took them out, injected them with a little bit of chicken broth, and applied the rub to the top halves. I fired up the Weber Smokey Mountain to 300 degrees. When it came up to temperature, the thighs went on.
Following the steps demonstrated in the video, I waited 30 minutes, opened the lid, and applied a pat of butter to each thigh. Then the lid stayed closed for 90 minutes. One step I missed: I forgot to cover the pan in foil. Damn it.
After 90 minutes elapsed, I brought out a saucepan containing a mixture of barbecue sauce and vinegar sauce that had been simmering for about 30 minutes. As luck would have it, both sauces were Malcolm Reed’s Killer Hogs brand.
I dipped each thigh in the sauce and put them on a rack that had been heating up in the smoker the entire time. As Malcolm points out in the video: you don’t want to shock the thighs by putting them on a fresh, room-temperature rack.
After about 20 minutes on the smoker to let the sauce glaze, I took them off.
I have to say, I was very pleased with my first go at competition-style thighs. On presentation, I probably would get a D, but they were tender, but firm to the bite, and the sauce was nicely glazed on the meat. The fiancée and her mother were also impressed by my effort.
I’ll definitely make these again, and I’ll pay attention to how much of a difference covering the thighs in foil makes.
The Wine: 2014 Klein Constantia Sauvignon Blanc
As someone who enjoys wine immensely, I have an instinctual aversion to sauvignon blanc. I think it’s because my first few were absolute green pepper bombs. I truly dislike the taste of green pepper, so I think I developed a Pavlovian response when I hear “sauvignon blanc.”
However, that’s the benefit of going to wine classes at Collier’s – you get to try new wines and don’t have to commit to buying a whole bottle if it fails to please. This bottle I tried in one of her classes a few years ago. It had been sitting on my rack since then, again, because of my instinct to avoid sav blanc.
But I happened to look at it and thought, “this might be the partner for tonight’s dinner.” So I looked up the description on Klein Constantia’s website to remind me why I probably liked this wine enough that I bought a bottle:
Bright and light in appearance, aromas of citrus and stone fruit fill the nose. The palate is richly textured, fresh and complex with a bold minerality – a pure expression of Sauvignon Blanc. The wine concludes with a long crisp flinty finish.
I knew that the chicken thighs would be bold, but not so much that I would need a pinot noir. This seemed like it would fit the bill.
On the nose, as the description says, citrus and stone fruit, but I also detected some flint, melon, and a touch of grassiness. On the palate, it was very similar. Very smooth, nice fruit and acidity. The seven years didn’t seem to affect it, in fact, I suspect the aging helped it along a little.
Unlike last week’s Canadian Riesling and Cornish game hen pairing, I was extremely pleased with this one.
Since I rambled a little on this post, I won’t go into the Klein Constantia vineyard, but will make the link available to their website if you want to learn more about them. I’ve had a few of their wines and always been impressed. I recommend them highly.
The next post will be about what I should have made on this day: Brisket. This time, I’ve set my alarm. Stay tuned.
Cheers!