The Oinkin’ Birdie in 10 Easy Steps
Amazin’ Cajun Bacon-Wrapped and Stuffed Whole Smoked Chicken
Here we’ve got another amazing recipe from Michael Pitre at Heaven Made Products. It’s a recipe for smoked whole chicken, the perfect intersection of bacon and barbecue! I’d say this is unlike anything you’ve ever dreamed of before, even if you are one of those strange people who dream of bacon every night. Let’s jump right in and get started with all the ingredients you’ll need to get started.
Ingredients:
- 1 large chicken or baking hen (Even a turkey will work, but will take more stuffing and more time to cook.)
- 1 large long bell pepper (or 2 large regular bell peppers)
- 1 large white or yellow onion
- 2 packs of thick cut hickory smoked bacon (at least 27 pieces)
- 1 shaker of Heaven Made Extra Spicy All Purpose Seasoning
- 1 shaker of Heaven Made Steak Seasoning
- Butcher’s twine
- Apple wood chips, chunks, or logs (or your favorite smoking wood)
1: Trim and Rinse the Chicken
Let your chicken adjust to room temperature. Remove all exposed fat and the tail. Rinse the whole chicken with warm water, and let the water drain off. Pat it dry with a paper towel.
2: Chop the Onion and Pepper
While your chicken is draining, slice your onion and bell pepper. How finely you chop these is not important because they are going to be precooked before placing into the chicken, so cut them to your liking.
3: Debone the Chicken
Deboning a chicken is easy. It took me only 15 minutes to complete on my first try. There are several videos on YouTube for deboning a chicken or turkey, but here’s how I did it:
I placed the chicken breast side down and cut from the top of the neck down to the bottom of the chicken’s back, down the middle of the back bone. Then, with my sharp knife, I filleted each side of the chicken, keeping my knife close to the bones and pulling the meat outward as I cut it away from the carcass. By the thigh joint, I cut the joint and then the tendons around the thigh bone. Next, I could start pushing the thigh meat down with my knife as I cut around the bone.
The thigh, leg and wing are really easy to do. On the leg, once you get the meat down to the ankle, pull the meat back up and make a cut all around the ankle on the outside of the leg. By then you should be able to pull the leg bone out easily.
The shoulder area is just a little difficult, but basically, keep separating meat from bone and you’ll “get r done” and be amazed at how easy it really is. I completely removed the chicken forearm and wing tip since there is not much meat on either of these two pieces. Save them for stock, Buffalo wings, a treat for the Dog, or throw ’em in the trash.
4: Season the Chicken
Now that all of the hard work is done the rest will be easy and fun. I seasoned the Chicken with two of my seasonings from Heaven Made Products. The first one is Extra Spicy All Purpose which is a spicy (but not too hot) Cajun seasoning. The second is Steak Seasoning which has lots of wonderful garlic, some black pepper, onion, and a unique base that adds lots of natural flavor and sodium. Shake a liberal layer of each seasoning on the exposed meat. Turn the legs inside out and season the meat. Then flip them right side out again.
5: Fry and Add the Bacon
I fried 7 pieces of thick sliced hickory flavored bacon for the inside of the chicken. I put 3 pieces on each half and I broke one piece of bacon in half to stuff into the legs. Feel free to use as much bacon as you want.
6: Sauté and Add the Veggies
Sauté the bell pepper and onion, and scatter the pieces over the chicken, stuffing some into the legs. Feel free to add any other ingredients you might like, the combinations for this dish are unlimited. Fold it in half and set it aside.
7: Weave and Season the Blanket
Now we’re ready to weave the bacon blanket. First lay down 4 pieces of baker’s twine as you see in the photo. Weave the rest of the bacon into a blanket. If you need help with this, search for “bacon explosion recipe” on YouTube to see a video of how this is done. It is really easy.
Once your bacon weave blanket is complete, season it liberally with Heaven Made Steak Seasoning and Extra Spicy All Purpose Seasoning.
8: Wrap it Up!
Set the chicken on one side of the bacon blanket and fold it in half. Tie each of the strings into a tight loop around the meat. If any of the bacon is hanging loose, tuck it in.
At this point you’ll be saying, “Wow, for something that seemed difficult and time-consuming, this was really easy and didn’t take as long as I thought it would!” That’s about what I said.
9: Smoke the Oinkin’ Birdie
Place your Bacon Blanket-Wrapped Stuffed Chicken in a 9 x 13 pan and set it in your barbecue smoker. Maintain 225 degrees F in the smoker and insert an internal temperature probe. Cook it until the internal temperature of the meat reaches 160 degrees. It will take around 4 hours.
10: Slice the Awesomeness
Remove the chicken from the barbecue smoker and let it rest for about 15 minutes. Remove the strings, set it on a cutting board, and slice it up. My, oh my! What flavor! Look at all of that goodness going on under that wonderful bacon blanket!
We like to serve our chicken with Cajun Dirty Rice, marinated Grape Tomatoes and Olives, Buttered Corn, and Tomatoes and Black Beans.
Note from Lavern:
The above recipe comes from my friend Michael Pitre at Heaven Made Products. He has developed an amazing line of seasonings. I especially like his steak seasoning. Not only delicious on steak, but also on chicken as shown in the above recipe.
Free gift: Michael is giving away a packet of injectable marinade as a special bonus with each order I refer to him.* So here’s your chance to get a little more value.
Michael says his seasonings are not filled with 75% salt like most other seasonings on the shelf. The unique base in his seasonings includes the sodium needed to make your food taste great and boosts the natural flavor of the dish unlike any other seasoning.
Have fun!
Lavern Gingerich
PS. While you’re here, don’t miss our revolutionary line of barbecue smokers from Meadow Creek. We’re here to make outdoor cooking fun, easy, and profitable.
*As a disclaimer, I need to say that Michael offered to give me a commission for each order that I refer to him. But that’s kinda beside the point. His stuff is awesome! Go buy it now.
August 1st, 2011 at 12:30 pm
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August 1st, 2011 at 12:33 pm
Looks really great I’ve got a site for de-boning a chicken on PBS pepin series.can be done with a little pratice in about two minutes.very little knife work I’ve used this tech.since I saw how he does it and it work great.check it out.then you can do all fowl the same.and then the turduchen is next.and wrap that in Bacon.thanks.
August 1st, 2011 at 4:19 pm
That looks very good. I just show it to my wife, and we argee that we will have to try it out. Thanks for all the recipes and tips. I enjoy your E-mails.
September 2nd, 2011 at 3:17 pm
I LL TELL YOU WHAT, THE CHICKEN LOOKS GOOD AND I LOVE BACON. WITH THIS RITIS IN MY HANDS, I COULD NEVER DEBONE IT. WILL HAVE A BUCTHER DO IT FER ME. THANKS.