Hot Smoked Guinea Fowl
With this Guinea Fowl recipe you will discover that you can barbecue this hen just as easy as the ordinary chicken.
If you are looking for something else for your dinner table, we can higly recommend a Guinea Fowl BBQ!
Guinea Fowl meat is firm and tender, and has a bit of a yellowish colour.
The taste of Guinee Fowl is a "fuller" than chicken, closer to the taste of game like partridge or pheasant.
Let's grill Guinea Fowl !!!
Guinea Fowl ?
Guinea Fowl look a bit like small turkeys, about the size of chicken. Bald headed, their feathers are typically blue-grey with small white dots.
This photo made by Bernard M. shows his beautiful Guinea Fowl and Barnevelder Chicken.
For the difference in appearance between barbecue Guinea Fowl and barbecue chicken have a look at these two pictures. Both these birds have a weight of about 2.5 pounds.
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Guinea Fowl
Narrow pointed breast Longer legs and wings Legs cut just above feet to show it's a Guinea Fowl |
Chicken
Wide breast shorter legs and wings Legs cut at ankles |
How To Smoke Guinea Fowl
1. Guinea Fowl
Wash the Guinea fowl under cold running water, remove any loose parts, dangling fat, excess skin, etc., and blot dry inside and outside using paper towels.
As an option, you might consider to stuff your Guinea fowl. We found that a stuffing with tutti-frutti works very well.
2. Barbecue Dry Rub
Put the Guinea fowl on a clean and dry surface, or in large non-reactive bowl, and apply a dry rub, inside and outside, spreading the rub with your hands and working it into all crevices until you have a nicely and evenly covered bird.
For dry rub on Guinea fowl we can recommend Juanita's Dry Rub USA #1 or Juancho's Mustard Rub.
Juanita's Dry Rub USA #1
Surprise friend and foe with a true American taste. This rub is suitable for all kinds of meat such as pork or lamb,
but is especially tasty on chicken and Guinea fowl.
Juancho's Mustard Rub Number 1
"Juancho's Mustard Rub #1" is one of our favourites for grilled chicken, Guinea fowl,
barbecue lamb or hot smoked pork!
And as you might have thought, this mustard rub combines very well with Juancho's Honey Mustard Glazing.
3. The Barbecue
You could prepare your Weber or similar covered barbecue grill for indirect grilling as per the method provided in the instruction booklet (if any), but we recommend Juancho's Split Grill.
Juancho's Split Grill / Blue Smoke BBQ Smoker
To obtain sustained lower heat and improved temperature control,
and to increase the grate area and be able to accommodate more meat
or larger cuts,
I developed an improved hot smoking method whereby the Weber Grill is set up for
indirect grilling on one side.
While this method for improving Weber smoking performance was initially just called Juancho's Split Grill, it is now also referred to by visitors as the Blue Smoke BBQ Smoker.
A few things worth noting:
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Pour about half an inch of water in the drip pan. Some fanatics will replace the water with beer or wine. It may sound idiot, but you will notice the difference! |
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For smoking we use a few water soaked chunks of oak, beech, plum or apple wood of, say, about 1"-2" thick and 3"-5" long. You could put your smokewood on top of the charcoal once the charcoal in in your barbecue is glowing and grey. We prefer to put chunks of smokewood in between the coals so they will burn a bit more gradually. |
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One hour before you plan to put your meat on the barbecue grill you should take it out of the fridge to let it gradually adjust to room temperature; In this way you will gain the first few degrees of heat in your meat without a flame touching it! |
4. Time to Relax
With your barbecue all set and smoking, stick the Guinea fowl on the grill above the dripping pan. Close the lid, open the vent valves on top of your Weber, close the bottom vents to 1/4 open, and Bob's yer uncle!
With the Guinea fowl resting in your black backyard coal-fired microwave, take it easy.
Pour yourself a drink, have a seat, read the paper, check the fire, watch that whisp of smoke curl up and follow a path to the neighbours.
Aaah, enjoy that lovely smell. There's nothing that can make you feel more down to earth and relaxed.
Try to resist peeking under the lid too often. Every time you open your smoker you will loose heat, and the cooking process will take longer. On the other hand, if you have time anyway, what the heck...
After about forty five minutes or one hour of smoking, you should check under the lid to see if the skin is not turning too dark.
After 45 minutes of hot smoking at temperatures in between 250°F and 300°F,
these birds had developed a nice golden brown skin.
Once you like the colour of the skin, cover the birds loosely with aluminium foil.
By the way, note how the lower legs are now stretched as a result of the heat!
Barbecue Fries, Anyone ?
Like with chicken, hot smoking of Guinea fowl can be easily combined with smoking potatoes.
These potato wedges were added to the grill after the Guinea fowl had been smoking for 45 minutes.
This is how the same fries looked after an hour and 15 minutes of hot smoking at moderate temperatures.
At this same time the Guinea fowl had been smoking for 2 hours and were properly done as well!
Note the tutti frutti stuffing in the Cuinea fowl in the back on the above picture.
5. Dinner Time
After about 1.5 - 2 hours of hot smoking at a temperature around 300°F without opening the lid too often, the Guinea fowl should be well done.
To check whether a smoked fowl is really done, I simply cut off a leg to see if the inside meat
has the proper texture and comes off the bone easily.
You could also check whether the fowl is indeed well done by inserting an instant read thermometer in the thickest parts of the meat which should then read about 180°F (just over 80°C).
The PitBoss Suggests:
Blue Smoke Barbecue Fries
Once you have tried these smoke-grilled potatoes,
you won't be able to resist making them every time you see some spare space on the grate...
Favourite Drinks
Cold beer (!) goes very well with every barbecue, summer and winter. Also: cold mineral water with fresh lemon slices, or a real cold dry white wine.
A fruity red wine is very well possible too, especially when served a bit cooler than usual.
OK, and then there's our Rianna and Juanita... Nobody will drive these girls crazy, they will always keep their cool... Whatever's on the menu, they'll stay with their red Rioja, Merlot or Malbec !!!
