hot smoked chicken
Hot-smoked chicken is…different. Deeply chicken-y, suffused with wood smoke, it can almost be a little disconcerting—there’s a mild cognitive dissonance thing that can happen (“This tastes like chicken, but it also tastes like bacon!”). Its texture is interesting, too: the long cooking works on the collagen and connective tissue in the meat to give it that classic slippery barbecue texture when hot and a firm, almost cured quality when cold. It might be too too for a whole meal centered on chicken, but let me tell you: It’s brilliant in a sandwich with a very ripe tomato and some good mayonnaise. It makes phenomenal chicken salad. It would be amazing diced and stirred into a pot of green chili or white bean chili.
Best of all, you don’t need to be a swaggering barbecue he-man, full of purist barbecue ideals and complicated equipment requirements, to make this. If you have a grill (charcoal or gas) that is any bigger at all than a chicken, three hours, and perhaps a refreshing beverage or two to pass the time, you can do this.
