Smoked Chicken Breast for Those Bored with Grilling, Frying or Baking!

Today we decided to break out the smoker that Erin's Aunt Jane from South Carolina gave us. We have not used it much in the last 6 months. I had defrosted 3 bone in chicken breasts the night before to use some time this week. I had never smoked chicken before so I decide to give it a try. I also had a pork loin roast that I threw in so we could make sandwiches during the week!

Wood chips used: Mesquite and pecan (no reason, just what I had on hand)

The first thing I did was mix up a quick rub.

3 tbls brown sugar
4 tbls paprika
1 tbls garlic powder
1/2 tbls celery salt
1 tbls kosher salt
1 tbls cayenne pepper

I have made a few rubs from recipes but never from scratch. I know all the different ingredients that can be used so I felt pretty comfortable throwing one together. I rubbed the chicken and pork about 1 hour before putting in the smoker. I put both on the smoker for about 3-4 hours. For some reason my smoker runs a little hot. I would like it to be 175-200 degrees but usaully runs in the 250-275 degree range. I pulled the pork of at about 155 degrees and the chicken at about 160 degrees.

Both the chicken and the pork had a great smokey flavor with a little heat on the back end. Erin said it was just yummy! The chicken was incredible! Especially the skin. I know it is bad for you but as you can see from the picture below it had a nice crust on it.

Erin ended up making a smoked chicken quesadilla with cheddar and dipped it in a pepper sauce we had. I did the same thing with the pork. Like I said above we will make pork sandwiches for lunch this week. We are going to use the chicken to make smoked chicken salad for sandwiches.

Side note: We planted some Arugula for the winter and it is growing like crazy. Whenever I am outback I have to pull a couple leaves and munch on them! We like to mix it with spinach for our salads.