Ten days ago I wrote the arrival of my new toy, a Bradley smoker. Due to crappy weather, work, and other obligations I finally just got around to using it, and as you can see by the picture above I didn’t waste any time in trying a number of things out. The highlight of the initial run was the hot smoked salmon. Sorry, you’ll have to wait for an upcoming post to hear all about it as I think it deserves a page all to yourself. All I’ll say is that despite slightly overcooking the salmon, it came out tasting fantastic and still moist. Even my wife, a hardcore salmon hater, didn’t spite it out immediately!!! That’s big praise coming from her.

Since I waited so long to use my new toy, I couldn’t stop at just the salmon. I wanted to try a number of things, so I also bought a large package of chicken thighs. I seasoned half with a traditional BBQ while the other half was seasoned with Penzey’s “Tandoori” seasoning. If you have never heard of Penzey’s before, I urge you to check out their website. Their spices are not cheap, but are of excellent quality! Unfortunately, the tandoori spices got kind of lost in the heavy hickory smoke I used on the chicken.

Finally, because I love them so, I had to do a rack of ribs. Cooking them slow and low, this 2 1/2 pound rack took almost 5 hours to cook, 3 of those hours cooking in glourious hickory smoke. In the end they were tender, moist and bursting with smoky goodness. I finished the ribs with a Maple BBQ, which I will need to re-make sometime as it was one of those “just toss into a pan” kind of sauces.

Now that I got my first fix of barbecue from my new toy I can’t wait to play some more. Some friends and I were talking and I think a Pulled Pork party is in the cards for the near future and once summer hits with full force I’ll be doing a smoked gazpacho, using tomatoes that so a brief spin in the smoker for just the lightest touch of smokiness. I can’t wait!!!

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1. My New Toy