Personal Recipe: Chicken Apple Half-Smokes
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Unfortunately, there aren't any better pictures because once this hit the table, it was gone. You know it's good when your picky-eaters cautiously take a small portion up front but end up chowing down afterward and asking for more when it's all gone. Tonight's meal was so surprisingly good that I felt like I needed to stop and take a minute to convert what just happened into a recipe so that I can make it, again. I'm going to randomly name this, "Chicken Apple Half-Smokes," as a nod to my Maryland roots and review how it came to be.
Background
For a week and a half, it has been near 80 degrees in Colorado, which is unseasonably warm for March. This weekend, when my wife and I actually got around to planning a menu for the week, we decided I would grill. We went to Sprouts to pick out something that looked good. After some quick math, I noticed their fresh, uncooked deli sausages were less than half the cost of the pre-packaged variety that we normally get. So I bought 6 chicken apple sausages, which I thought was obnoxious because each was the size of a toddler's arm. It was a ton of meat for like 6 bucks.
Following my recent pattern, I got too bogged down with work and it ruined my cooking plans. Three days in a row. So I backed myself into a corner with no option other than to cook today even though my schedule was hectic all day. Luckily, the meat still smelled very fresh. Given that I didn't have a lot of time, I cut every corner along the way–left the old ash in the smoker, only cleaned the top rack, only rinsed/scrubbed the water pan a little and I finished off by just slapping the sausages on the grill with no prep. Like normal, I inserted dual thermometers and pulled the meat when it reached 165. After tasting it, I thought it was too watery in the middle so I cut them all in half and left them on the grill until my wife got home from the store... 45 minutes later. I pulled them and combined them with a caramelized onion and red pepper mixture and some "hot dog sauce." We were all caught off guard by how delicious it was.
Recipe
My true audience for this recipe is me... a couple months from now. So I'll write it in a way that I'll be able to recreate later.
Prep time: 0 min
Cook time: 90 min
Coal: one chimney only
- 10-12 Fresh, uncooked chicken apple sausages
get more than I think I'd need because this will reheat just fine - 4 yellow onions
tonight I used red because that's what we had but yellow is probably best - 2 large red bell peppers
- 1 cup of mayonnaise
roughly, err on the side of more - 1 tablespoon of yellow mustard
roughly, err on the side of less
consider making a second batch that uses dijon, instead and see which is better - 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar
- 10-12 hoagie rolls
- (optional) wife's homemade coleslaw
- (optional) superfood salad with poppyseed dressing
Prepare the smoker and toss on the sausages with thermometers inserted in a couple. Add a light wood like apple, cherry or pecan. Avoid oak, hickory, mesquite. Let it cook about 30 minutes or so to get the initial smoke layer. Maintain around 200 degrees the entire time (with good coal that means keep the vents nearly closed). Once things die down and it's about time to add more wood chips, remove the lid and slice each sausage in half long-ways, about 90% like a hoagie roll, and fan them out to release the inner moisture. Putting them upside down won't make a big difference. Toss in some wood chips and cook until 165 or 170 (depending on how strong your initial batch of coal is).
Begin working on the fixin's: slice the onions into fairly long pieces (cut in half vertically, then slice those halfs into strips). Put them in a medium (9+ inch) pan with plenty of butter on medium heat. Stir vigorously to break up the onion pieces, then let them cook while you chop the red peppers. Cut the peppers into strips then chop those strips into quarters and add it to the pan with more butter. Cook until the onions are well caramelized and the peppers still have life in them. Meanwhile, combine the mayo, mustard and vinegar in a dish and stir until blended. Do the proportions such that the sauce is more smooth than tangy. Add only enough vinegar to thin the consistency a bit. Later, when the kids ask what this is tell them it's "hotdog sauce."
Pull the meat and let it rest at least 10 minutes. Slather the buns with hotdog sauce on each side, place the sausage in the middle, cut side up, then fill it with the onion/pepper mix and serve. Most people (even Orianna) will eat 1 sausage. Hungry people will eat about one and a half. G.G. will barely touch hers.
