This will take 4 to 8 hours depending on the heat of the smoker and thickness of the breast meat of the birds.
Ingredients
2-4 dressed birds, skinned
½ stick butter per bird -- more as needed
1 teaspoon liquid smoke per bird (optional)
1 teaspoon herbs of choice per bird (optional), rosemary or sage
hickory, pecan, or mesquite wood chips, at least a double handful per bird
This is an all day project, though other activities can be engaged in through the process. However, the preparation must begin a day earlier.
Preparation the day before the feast:
1. Hunt birds. Whether you actually bag any or not is not particularly important provided you are prepared to buy, bargain, or beg for the required birds.
2. Clean birds and refrigerate.
3. Soak the wood chips for smoking in water overnight.
4. Tell thrilling stories of the hunt to eager listeners.
5. Waken eager listeners as necessary.
6. Sleep well.
Feast Day
1. Light plenty of charcoal and confine pile to one area of the fire bed if you are using a grill rather than a true smoker.
2. Drain wood chips for smoking and place a large handful in aluminum foil and wrap poking holes through out the pouch. You will need one or more pouches of smoking chips per bird depending on size of pouch and duration of planned smoke.
3. Skin birds.
4. Place birds in shallow pans or aluminum foil "pans" made of several layers of foil with sides turned up about 1 inch on all 4 sides crimping corners.
5. Put in grill (on side away from charcoal) or smoker.
6. Put a chips pouch close to the coals or fire to allow gradual, slow burning of wood producing flavorful smoke. Replace pouches as wood becomes fully charred. Burned wood chips may be added to the charcoal to complete burning.
7. Place butter in pan along with liquid smoke and herbs of choice.
8. Baste birds with the buttery liquid in pan frequently (about every 20 minutes, more frequently as necessary) to see that the meat remains moist.
9. Turn birds about every 2 hours.
10. Add charcoal and adjust air inlets as necessary.
11. The temptation is to cook the meat too fast. Another pitfall is the failure to baste the birds frequently enough to maintain the meat's moisture.
12. The meat is done when the thickest part, usually the breast near the breastbone, is done with no bloody juice being noted when making a small cut is made through the full thickness.
13. Time to doneness will vary greatly with size and number of birds and size and heat of smoker.
Serving Suggestions
Serve with chutney of various sorts. Relish or salsa works well, too.
Contributed by Dr. Paul Elliott in Flavored with Love.
