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Smoked Garlic Chicken

Smoked chicken seasoned with paprika, chili, cayenne, lemon pepper, garlic powder, salt, black peppercorns, and mustard.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Smoked Garlic Chicken

Oven225°F smoker

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine seasonings and set aside.

  2. Brush chicken with mustard. Press seasoning mixture into both sides of the meat. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Smoke

  1. Preheat smoker to 225°F with mesquite. Add chicken pieces and insert a probe thermometer into one. Cook, adding wood as needed, until internal temperature reaches 170°F.

Char and serve

  1. Move to a very high grill and cook until charred and marked. Flip and repeat.

  2. Serve immediately with desired side dishes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

198Calories
32 gProtein
4 gFat
8 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Chicken100g cooked165
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Woodnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Garlic + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Chicken + garlictop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,850 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  4. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken leg quarters
Provides the meat that is smoked and then charred, staying juicy during long, low cooking.
Paprika
Adds color and a mild sweet, smoky flavor to the seasoning crust.
Garlic powder
Contributes savory, aromatic depth to the seasoning rub.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat that builds through the seasoning rub.
Yellow mustard
Acts as a binder that helps the dry seasoning adhere to the chicken.

The step that matters

Charring on the very high grill. Chicken can go from charred to dry or burnt quickly over intense heat. Flipping and watching closely lets the sugars and proteins brown without overcooking the interior, which the smoking stage already brought to 170°F.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, garlic, mustard):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Mangofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, garlic, mustard. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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