Hickory Chicken:

A friend of mine, Dennis Tindall cooked this ‘Hickory Chicken’ for me. It was fully cooked in the hickory sticks smoke! Yes, that’s right…sloooooow cooking, one of my favorite.

Well, more than the dish, the preparation style is lot more fun. On the other day…after done with considerable amount of sweating under the sun, as we were working on our yard (landscaping etc)! Later that evening, Dennis did all the cooking for bunch of our buddies. All I know is, he is real good at country cooking! He has cooked dinner for us, several times…but unfortunately I never witnessed his culinary abilities until that day! Whenever I do Indian shopping, I usually buy a bag of basmati rice and large packet of chili powder for him. Yeah, all these years…I have pretty much trained his palate for spicy Indian meals. So, now he is better at appreciating my food, whereas…I didn’t acquire his cooking techniques, yet!!

Anyway, coming to the story…It was dusk, bit breezy and chill weather, he initiated fire in a large pit, with some charcoal. Used a heavy drum, where the bottom rack was filled with a bag hickory sticks, and meat was placed on the top rack…further a large stone slab was mounted over the meat for pressure. This set-up was left out there for more than 3-4 hours! Now, you imagine the rest…outdoor cooking thrill and excitement! There upon, bunch of us flocked around the pit…Pulled each others legs and talked about childhood mischievous events. Chatted and laughed until our cheeks hurt. And, slowly the night crept in, by the time…the smoke from hickory sticks had infused into the meat and tenderized it with lot of flavor! At last, when it was almost done, the meat was kind of falling off from the bones! Then, he brushed it with hickory sauce, dusted with pinch of cinnamon powder and finally finished it with honey glaze. Yum!

Didn’t realize the amount of calories we indulged in that day. We had finished the whole thing in no time! Well, not really…I just saved one’ for this photo session:)