This would make a great way to do up a thanksgiving situation. All you need is a place to dig a hole, some rocks (that are fire worthy -- nothing all full of quartz or river rocks that will explode during heating) and a bird.
Here she is, the yard bird all seasoned up with a Moroccan spice blend with lots of sumac. Make sure to wrap the bird tight in tin foil, shiny side in please, and place her breast down during the cooking to ensure tender white meat.
Cut some branches of apple, alder, birch, whatever tree, shrub or rush you have hand to add to the smoking. We used the red ceder this time.
All this time you have had large rocks baking in a fire, heating them up for hours, now you are ready to remove these stones and find some way to get them into the pit you dug. The pit does not need to be wide, but needs to be about 1.5-2ft deep. This one was even a little deeper. We used the cast iron dutch oven to transport the rocks to the hole. Toss them in there. Lay down half your branches on top of the rocks, if you were able to pre-wet them that would have been good. i just dunked the whole arm load in the stream and layed half the branches down on the rocks, put the bird on top of the branches and covered it with the rest of the branches.
I poured a stock pot full of water over the whole thing and then its time to re-burry it.
We went on a foray and were gone most of the day, probably about 6 hours. When we returned dinner was hot and ready. We had thrown some individually tin foil wrapped beets right in the coals from the rock fire and they were baked to perfection.
The best advice i have for you is to be very careful when you excavate it, don't gouge your shovel through the tin foil. But, please do be prepared for the best tasting, most deliciously tender chicken you have ever tastes.
I don't have a picture of the finished product because i was too busy getting my hands dirty eating it.
1 comment:
um, all i do when i look at your blog these days is drool. big puddles.
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