Maple Whiskey Pulled Chicken
I use to religiously participate in Taste and Create but end of last year abruptly stopped. The reason was not because the program sucked but I missed one month and then slowly I kept forgetting to send my name as the months passed by.
For those who do not know Taste and Create is an awesome program that once a month pairs you up with another blog. You find a recipe you like on their blog, create it, and ramble on about it. It has exposed me to a couple new blogs that I still try to religiously follow.
This month I got paired up with Jen from Piccante Dolce. One dish on her blog that really stood out was maple whiskey pulled chicken. How can you go wrong with a dish that has maple, booze, and chili peppers? Another bonus is that this recipe gave me a chance to relax in the kitchen and use my overpriced crock pot that is nothing more than a glorified food warmer. Also, after the stuffed manicotti my overworked dishwasher smiled at me. However, that could have been a result of the whiskey (had to taste to make sure the whiskey was still good).
The recipe did call for liquid smoke which surprisingly for my vast selection of random stuff I did not have. I do have my trusty hand held smoker called the Smoking Gun. It is made by Polyscience and a valuable resource if you are obsessed with smoking especially quick smoked cheeses. Another advantage of the smoking gun is during winter when I miss the smell of smoke from my smoker filling up the house I will fire up the smoking gun and run around. I went ahead and ran a couple handfuls of cherry and hickory wood chips through the smoking gun to try and impart some smokey flavor. In the spirit of honesty the smokey flavor was not really present in the final product which bummed me out.
For this recipe you will need:
- About 3 lbs of chicken. Jen used a combination of chicken thighs and breast however, I used chicken thighs.
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 1/4 cup cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup whiskey
- 1 Tbsp tomato paste
- 1 Tbsp smoked paprika
- 1/4 - 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon grainy mustard
- 1 1/2 tsp hickory liquid smoke
- 1 medium onion - chopped
- 3 cloves garlic - minced
- Kosher salt and black pepper
Once you have all your ingredients it gets really complicated. You take everything but the chicken and throw it in your crock pot. Mix it all up so it combined, throw the chicken in, cover, and yell set it at forget it as you set your crock pot to low. Come back about 6 hours later to chicken that is easy to shred and has been slow cooked in a rich flavorful sauce.
This dish reminded me of BBQ and so I felt it deserved some BBQ treatment. I chopped up some cabbage, carrots, and broccoli and made a simple vinegar based coleslaw. The recipe really is dash of cider vinegar, dash of grapeseed oil, pinch of sugar, salt, pepper, mustard seeds, celery seeds, crushed red pepper, paprika, and what other spices you like. Finally, it would not be a spring dish unless it was served on a lightly toasted bun with some chips.
That’s a great recipe. Looks so tasty. Have a good week-end.
Wow, that smoking gun sounds like a very cool gadget. The recipe sounds realy good.
Cheers,
elra
Whiskey? Did you say whisky? We’ll take a sammie!
Got here by way of Foodgawker, and what an awesome looking recipe! Im thinking a mop for smoked HAM!
What a cool smoker - my husband would dig that. The pulled chicken looks amazing!
Love the sammie, and that you used the Canadian spelling of Whiskey! So wonderful to have a great, low effort but high flavour dish.
Now I am picturing you running around the house with the smoker…
Ahh, we always seem to have whiskey in the house. Hopefully I can steal some to make this tasty dish! PS. that smoker is pretty sweet! Have a good weekend.
That sounds SOOOO amazing!!!
what a cool event. i’ve never heard of it. this chicken sounds delicious!
i keep forgetting to sign up, too!
oh well. great choice, and excellent execution!
Pulled meat sammies are one of my favorite things.
I make a pork bbq sandwich similar to this..
Pork shoulder, cook it in the crock pot all day, shred it, add cider vinegar, crushed red pepper flakes and cook it a little longer in the crock pot
Yours looks so yummy!
You don’t see too many recipes that call for liquid smoke. When I first heard about that ingredient, I was dumbfounded. The maple aspect of this recipe sounds perfect to me!
I have got to get one of those little smoker things! Wow!
I have two smokers, two dyhydrators, but I don’t have that hand held smoker gizmo! Makes sense!
Mmmmm…great sauce. This reminds me of how a few months ago I was constantly trying to make up recipes using up a bottle of bourbon I had purchased. I still have some left. I think it’s time to break it out again and make some chicken.
I should be involved iwth Taste and Create. I am a mad blog pilferer. Last summer I made a different desssert every week and every recipe I used was one I took from someone else’s blog.
I love your smoker! Oh, and the chicken looks great too.
I love the idea of the smoking gun and I’ve never seen anything like it! And as for the recipe that sounds and looks amazing. I love pulled pork and this is just a delicious extension of it
I love pulled anything! I have some great crockpot pulled pork recipes on the blog you should try out. That smoking gun (pun intended) is awesome! Shockingly I don’t have liquid smoke either…I can never seem to find it in the supermarket when I need it. I usually just substitute buffalo sauce.
I need to know more about this smoker…..
I think I need that smoking gun. We have a smoker, but that looks great for quickie jobs.
The chicken looks amazing, by the way! I had signed up for Taste & Create, but never heard anything back, so kind of gave up.
Hey there!
I’m so glad you tried this recipe. It was my first time using liquid smoke, which I see in a lot of slow cooker BBQ recipes. Love your smoking gun, I may have to get one! I’ll be trying your dry rub wings tonight and am excited about it! Although there is a part of me that might also do the chocolate covered bacon
x
Love your smoking gun. What a neat gadget. I’m going to check out taste and create it sounds like fun.