I love BBQ to me there is nothing peaceful than staring at a smoker chugging away undisturbed while magical and beautiful things happen under the hood. The entire neighborhood is full of the magical aroma of flavorful wood burning away.
This recipe was one I used a couple years ago in BBQ competitions and actually is still very highly requested when people find out the smoker is getting fired up.
The first thing you want to do is create the brine (say “the brine” in your best superfans impersonation guaranteed to bring a smile to your face) for the chicken thighs.
To you those who like the scientific explanation here is what Wikipedia has to say about brining:
“Brining makes cooked meat moister by hydrating the cells of its muscle tissue before cooking, via the process of osmosis, and by allowing the cells to hold on to the water while they are cooked, via the process of denaturation. The brine surrounding the cells has a higher concentration of salt than the fluid within the cells, but the cell fluid has a higher concentration of other solutes. This leads salt ions to enter the cell via diffusion. The increased salinity of the cell fluid causes the cell to absorb water from the brine via osmosis. The salt introduced into the cell also denatures its proteins. The proteins coagulate, forming a matrix which traps water molecules and holds them during cooking. This prevents the meat from drying out, or dehydrating.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brining
To those who like the dumb down explanation here is the Jeff reason:
“Brining is basically water with a lot of salt that makes meat very moist and tender.” I also always like to follow this with a Beavis laugh and the word fire in my best Butt-Head impersonation.
At a basic level we could just submerge the chicken thighs in a combination of salt and water but really what is the fun in that? Since the chicken thighs will be sitting in the brine for a good 8-24 hours this would be a great chance to add a lot of amazing flavors and help flavor the meat.
For the brine you will need: