Sausage, chicken thighs, mac n cheese
 

Edit: I am new to smoking and to the forum, this is my first post outside cattle call. Thanks in advance for any help!

If my new masterbuilt 30" arrives today like it is scheduled to, I am planning to smoke a fatty (just bacon wrapped Jimmy Dean hot), 2lbs of chicken thighs, and a 9x11 pan of mac and cheese. This would be for 3 people dinner tonight. Looks like temps should be 225 for about 3 hours on the fatty IT to 160, 225 for 1 hour for my mac and cheese recipe, but 250 for 1.5 hours for the thighs IT at 165.

I would like to smoke it all at the same time, putting the thighs and the mac in later than the sausage. I am planning on setting the temp to 225 for the first hour and half on the sausage, then getting it up around 250 to add the chicken and mac for another hour and half. I do not have a remote thermometer yet, just an analog probe, so most of the cooking will be based on time and temp to limit opening the smoker.

Does that sound right? Any suggestions? I also have a 6lb bone in boston butt waiting for me at the local meat market (Baumann's in St. Louis) to do some serious smoking tomorrow :wink:.

sounds good to me. have fun with your new cooker.

Planning to clean it then season for 2 hours to get any residuals vapors from cleaning out, then go straight into cooking.

If you like crispy skin on your thighs you might wanna think about going over 325 at the end to crisp the skin. At 250 it will not be crispy....but it you don't care or don't eat the skin then you have a decent plan!


Remember...pics or it didn't happen.:grin:

Pics for proof. I decided to wrap the thighs with bacon since they were boneless/skinless and just use a heavy rub on the JD hot. Both turned out great. The flash on my phone picked up on the extra grease... The chicken also looks undercooked but I think that is a flash thing too, cooked to 170 and just a little over done.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-m...2021.18.59.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-p...2022.11.19.jpg

The mac and cheese didn't get all bubbly like I had hope but it was a big hit. I used pecan chips on this smoke and you could definitely taste it in the m&c.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-_...2020.18.43.jpg

Here's the butt, 6.5 lbs, bone in, fat cap on. This is the first one I have ever done. I was debating about trimming the fat cap off or not. I'll be pulling it so left it on to keep it moist. Water pan is sitting on top of the smoker, I did put it in (with no water).

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-y...2007.47.20.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-m...2007.47.31.jpg