Of course, I’m not going to spend the time and money to attend world barbecue champion Myron Mixon’s BBQ Cooking School without documenting my post-class attempts, am I? That would be ridiculous, and frankly, insulting to all of you.
Unfortunately, I won’t divulge specific measurements here since class attendees agreed not to publish the recipes, but I will supply helpful links.
I Feel Like Chicken Tonight (Like Chicken Tonight)
Not wanting to put too much pressure on myself out of the gate, I decided the first cook would be the cupcake chicken thighs and barbecue drumsticks. For the former, I picked up one of Myron’s silicon cupcake molds, which are intended for this specific dish. You can also use a cheap cupcake pan from your grocery or kitchen supply store and make holes in the bottom about 1/3” in diameter.
You might recall from the recap of my experience at Myron’s weekend session, the style of barbecue taught is competition, which tends to be saucy and sweet. It’s meant to appeal to judges who are looking for these flavor profiles. I tend to favor more dry and smoky/spicy when I cook. So for future posts, I might do the same techniques described here, but with different flavors.
Two days before the cook, I prepared the brine. The 48 hours allow the ingredients to infuse in the water to help give the chicken flavor while also retaining moisture. Again, while it would be unethical for me to divulge the recipe – me being a man of my word and all – I can let Myron talk about the brine himself!
Day of the cook, I prepared the chicken. For the thighs, I removed the skin and scraped the bottom, then placed it back on the meat. For the legs, I slid the skin down to the knuckle, then removed the tendon (goes up one side of the leg and splits into a “V” shape at the top). After hitting all pieces with a tenderizer, I put them in the brine for about two hours.
After time elapsed, I removed the bones from the thighs and placed them into the mold, skin side down. The mold went into an aluminum pan. Once in, I lightly sprinkled them with Myron’s Hot Rub, then the Honey Money Cluck Rub. After that, I filled each cup, then the bottom of the pan with chicken broth.
The legs went right into an aluminum pan and received the same rub mixture as the thighs. Instead of chicken broth, I sliced up a stick of butter and evenly distributed it around the edges of the pan.
Time to fire up the Weber Smokey Mountain. I used some cherry and pecan wood, then brought the smoker up to 275 degrees. Once I got the heat that I needed, I put on the pans filled with bird meat.
While the chicken was cooking, I prepared the sauce. Again, without specific measurements, I can just say that it included Myron’s Vinegar and Hickory Sauces, honey, apple juice, and blackberry preserves. I blended the ingredients and poured in a saucepan. I heated the mixture at a low temp for about 15 minutes, then let it cool.
After about an hour and a half, the chicken came off. I removed the thighs from the mold and put them skin side up on a rack. The top got sprinkled with hot rub, then hickory rub. The legs I basted with the melted butter in the pan. Next, they both went back on the smoker for another 20 minutes.
When enough time had elapsed, I took off the chicken and dipped each piece in the sauce. The legs went onto a rack and back on the smoker, along with the thighs. For both, I gave them another 5-10 minutes to allow the sauce to glaze.
They came off with a beautiful, glistening, dark red and honey color. The flavors were a tasty combination of sweetness, dark fruit, and hickory with a little bit of heat. The ingredients really came together well to provide the kind of barbecue you wouldn’t get just by smoking some chicken and then throwing on a generic sauce. The latter would be easier for sure, but not as delicious and certainly not as rewarding.
The Wine: 2018 Christophe Pacalet Chenas
Yes. Another Beaujolais Cru! Evaluating the ingredients that went into the final product, I thought about which wine would best match up to the flavors. While there would be some hickory and heat, the amount of blackberry preserves added would definitely give the chicken a bold dark-fruit element.
Beaujolais is all about bold, dark fruits with a touch of earthiness that I thought would pair well with the hickory flavors. The 2018 Christophe Pacalet Chenas was another one I sampled from the Beaujolais Cru class I attended at Collier’s of Centreville. While the bold fruits definitely came through, both on the nose and the palate, it wasn’t heavy or overwhelming. It was a
A little bit about Chenas from Wine-Searcher.com:
Chénas is a small appelation for red wines produced in an area of northern Beaujolais that constitutes one of the ten Beaujolais crus. It takes its name from the forests of oak trees (“chênes” in French) that once covered the surrounding hillsides – an area that is now home to an ocean of Gamay vines.
Chénas wines are among the heaviest (organoleptically) in Beaujolais, and are known for their floral, earthy characters and ageability. Chénas, along with Moulin-à-Vent, is one of the most highly-regarded Beaujolais cru wines, and the best examples can be cellared for up to ten years.
I didn’t have any luck in finding a website for Christophe Pacalet, but found this little blurb about the winery’s approach to winemaking on an online wine store:
The nephew of iconic Beaujolais figure Marcel Lapierre, Christophe Pacalet has been making wine on his own in the region since 1999. He owns no vineyards but has had the benefit of stable contracts with top growers almost from his first day in business. His Beaujolais-Villages is a tight, mineral-driven wine that reflects the granitic soils on which the grapes were grown.
Overall, I was pleased with my recreation of Myron’s competition-style chicken and the wine I paired with it. I might try a Syrah or Sangiovese next time, but this one definitely fit the bill.
Don’t miss next post. It’s gonna be another Myron recipe (hint: oink, oink)
Cheers!