Cassie’s Ruminations

Shaker Smoked Chicken Thighs

Inspired by this recipe from Eating Well via cooking.com, tonight’s dinner was quick smoked chicken thighs. I was pleasantly surprised that the smoke did indeed flavor the meat, even with such a short cooking time. I only marinated for 20 minutes as my grill heated up, and this turned out quite well. I’ll have to play with the seasonings and wood in the future 🙂

I used a Wood Chip Smoker Box and Alderwood grilling pellets. I placed the smoker box under my grill grates between two of the burners and it heated up just perfectly and made a fair bit of smoke – not quite for the promised 20 minutes, but next time I’ll add a few more to the box. Overall, I was impressed with how well this worked for not even kinda like a real smoker 😛 You can see instructions for creating a foil packet for wood chips at the original recipe above if you don’t want to get a little smoker box.

I served this with fresh tomatoes and roasted eight ball summer squash from my CSA box.

Shaker Smoked Chicken Thighs
Serves 2

1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp onion powder
1 lb skinless boneless chicken thighs
1/2 – 1 cup wood chips (soaked for at least 20 minutes) or barbecue pellets

Mix together the vinegar, olive oil, salt, garlic powder, and onion powder in a large zip top bag. Add the chicken thighs, squeeze out all the air, seal the bag, and let the chicken marinate for 20 minutes at room temperature.

While the chicken is marinating, pour the wood chips or barbecue pellets into a small smoker box and place it directly on the burners of a gas grill off to one side.

Light the grill and preheat on high heat for 15 minutes. Reduce heat on the side without the smoker box to medium, and quickly place the chicken on the rack over the lower heat, letting as little smoke out as possible. Grill for 6-8 minutes on each side, or until cooked through and nicely browned.

Serve warm.