Golden Pineapple Mango Glazed Chicken

[FTC standard disclaimer]  I received no compensation for this post.  Some of the links are Amazon affiliate links.  I do have a business relationship with Oklahoma Joe's, but none of that involves promoting them on my blog or social media.  

My first career was in the retail grocery industry, and I started in high school.  I loved working in the produce and meat departments because there was so much to learn as a teenager.  Back then, for a chicken to be considered a fryer, it had to be 3 1/2 pounds or less.  These days, most fryers start about 4 1/2 pounds and can run over 6 pounds.

I was happy to find a 3 1/2 pound Gerber Amish Farms Chicken at my Food City* this past weekend. I didn't know what I was going to do with it until I got home and rummaged through the refrigerator.  I found some Tropicana Pineapple Mango with Lime drink and thought it would make a good poultry glaze.  I was right.

The glaze is sweet with the citrus tang you would expect.  It is mouthwatering good on grilled chicken and tastes like Summer.  It also creates a beautiful golden color on the chicken.

Golden Pineapple Mango Glazed Chicken

Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients

• 1 cup Tropicana Pineapple Mango with Lime drink
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground chipotle
• 1 tablespoon cold water
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

Instructions

1. Reduce the stock and juice.  Place the stock and juice in a medium saucepan over medium high heat.  Bring it to a simmer and cook until it is reduced down to 1 cup.  This should be right at 20 minutes of simmering.  If you use a smaller saucepan, it will take longer because there is less surface area for evaporating.
2. Add the seasonings.  Whisk in the sugar, ginger, salt, and chipotle.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  Taste and adjust salt if needed.
3. Thicken the sauce.  Whisk the water and cornstarch together to make a slurry.  Whisk this into the sauce and simmer until thickened enough that it coats the back of a spoon.  That took less than a minute for us.

Next, I prepared the chicken.  I decided to spatchcock the chicken.  Spatchcocking makes the chicken cook faster and more evenly.  Plus, I think it just looks better.  Here is how to spatchcock a chicken.

Use poultry shears to remove the backbone.  Place the heel of your hand on the center of the breast and forcibly push down.  You will hear rib bones breaking, don't freak out. Finally, tuck the tips of the wings back behind the chicken.

Then I preheated a smoker to 275°f.  My weapon of choice for this cook was my Okalahoma Joe's new drum smoker - the Bronco.  I will do an initial review post about this new cooker later but so far I'm liking it.

You could do this on any grill set up for indirect heat.  

• For a kamado grill, set it up with a heat diffuser.  
• For a kettle grill, bank the coals on each side and place a half-sized steam pan in the center, cook above the steam pan.  Or you could use a Slow and Sear in the kettle grill. 
• For a gas grill, turn 1 or 2 burners on to get your heat.  Then place the chicken over burners that aren't on and shut the lid while cooking.

I patted the chicken dry and lightly oiled it with some peanut oil.  Then I seasoned it on the front and back with one tablespoon of Baida Adobo with Pepper.  The adobo seasoning is a balanced general-purpose seasoning with salt, garlic, pepper, turmeric, sugar, and citric acid.  It also has a brilliant yellow color.

To build on the pineapple flavor profile, I spritzed the bird with pineapple juice at the beginning and about an hour into the cook.  Tip:  When using citrus juices for spritzing, strain them through a fine mesh sieve to avoid jamming the spray trigger mechanism with pulp.

It took about 1 hour and 30 minutes to hit an internal temperature of 145°f. 

Once the chicken was at 145°f, I brushed the glaze onto the bird and then spritzed it rather heavily with pineapple juice. 

The total cook time was about 1 hour and 45 minutes.

I pulled the chicken from the cooker when it hit 160°f in the breasts.  I was using a Thermoworks Chef Alarm to monitor the internal temperature while it was cooking. Ignore the max temperature reading, I had also used it as an air temperature monitor for a bit during this cook.  A chicken cooked to an internal temp of 289°f would be a bit....crispy, right?  

Golden and delicious!

This sauce is fantastic on grilled chicken so I couldn't wait to try the Golden Pineapple Mango Glaze on wings.  That's coming up.

*I call it my Food City because I have shopped at that particular store for 19 years.  I started shopping there when it was a Bi-Lo in 2000.  I shop at other grocery stores too, Butler Bailey, Fresh Market, Publix, Whole Foods, Earth Fare, Costco, Kroger, and Sams.  But if I'm going to "the store", it is going to be Food City #694.  Yes, I know the store number because I'm a grocery store geek!