Smoked Spicy Hot Barbecued Chicken



Ingredients:
2 fryer broiler chickens, 3 to 3 1/2 pounds each, cut in quarters or eighths)
1 quart Hickory-Quick Baste-Marinade
3 cups Spicy Hot Chicken Sauce (recipe follows)
3 cups hickory wood chips, baste-soaked

Spicy Hot Chicken Sauce:
3 cups V-8 juice
1/3 cup (3 ounces) pure hickory liquid smoke
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
1/3 cup hot jalapeno peppers, finely chopped
1 cup Hickory-Quick Baste-Marinade

Method:
Combine all ingredients in a 4-quart pot. Stir thoroughly and boil gently for 25 minutes on medium heat, covered, stirring periodically. With a final stir remove from heat.

Yields approximately 1 quart

To Marinate Chicken
Place chicken pieces in sizable pot or bowl or use a plastic bag set in a rimmed container. Pour 1/2 quart of baste-marinade to submerge chicken. Cover pot or bowl or twist-tie plastic bag. Marinate for 2 hours at room temperature or refrigerate overnight. Turn occasionally for thorough marinating.

Pit Fire:
Presoak hickory wood chips in 1 cup of Hickory-Quick Baste-Marinade for 30 minutes and drain. Evenly spread soaked chips over a close bed of 40-odd white-ash-hot charcoal briquettes. Let chips burn into pit fire until flames are out.

Pit Basting:
When pit fire is ready, remove chicken pieces from marinade and drain. (Retain used marinade and strain through a fine sieve for pit basting.) Place chicken pieces on lightly greased pit grill 4 to 6 inches above pit fire. Brush or spray-baste, browning and turning frequently for 50 minutes or until chicken is done the way you like it. Test to be sure the meat near bone is no longer pink when forked. Brush on Spicy Hot Hickory Chicken Sauce or tong-dip chicken pieces in sauce pot 2 or 3 times during last 10 minutes of cooking time. Serve with remaining sauce.

Makes 8 servings