Smoked Chicken pron
 

First time doing whole chickens on the WSM. They came out great...much much better than the beer can chickens I've been doing on the Weber Kettle the past few years.

My method:
Brined birds in a cooler for 6 hours
Pat dry...stuff with oranges and onions
Outside gets a coating of vegetable oil and rub
They went for about 2 hours on the smoker to an internal breast temp of 165...pit temp was between 300-350.

I tried two different rubs on these. On one I did the Plowboys Yardbird Rub...on the other I did the Killer Hogs The BBQ Rub. Both chickens came out great...couldn't really tell a taste difference between the two. I think The BBQ Rub is a bit more versatile (Yardbird rub is way too salty for ribs) so I'll stick with the Killer Hogs going forward.

One question...is there anything I can do to keep my skin from splitting like it did? The chicken still tasted great...but for presentation purposes I think they would look better without the big tears in them.

Rubbed down...ready for smoking...
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8176/7...c2b4f51c_z.jpg


Just pulled off smoker...
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8300/7...9a29d52c_z.jpg


Carved and picked...leftovers were turned into the most amazing chicken salad I've ever had on Sunday.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8042/7...647e945f_z.jpg

Birds look great!! Not sure about the split skin, although you might try this; a sheet of loose foil laid on top of the bird for maybe first half of cook, then remove to crisp the skin for the remainder of the cook. Looks like you had plenty of heat coming down on them . The finished product looks perfect to me. Yummmmm.

GREAT JOB, I love the color


I too share the same feeling here, I thought maybe it was just me. I also did a pork shoulder with a heavy coating of Yardbird and it was too salty to enjoy. If salt was still a currency I think we would be rich.

I bought a 5 pound bag, so I had to add Paprika, Granulated Garlic, Granulated Onion, Chili Powder, and others to cut the salt in the remaining rub.

I have heard everybody rave about the rub in other messages. I thought maybe I just had a bad batch and resolved to never buy it again. Now that you had the same experiences, I guess the high salt content is normal and not just an isolated package.

I have gone back to my old favorite "Butch's Rub"

Thanks. Yea...it definitely wasn't bad...but it also wasn't any better than the Killer Hogs rub imo. I feel like the Killer Hogs rub will be more versatile as the Plowboys is too salty for pork. It worked fine on chicken...but I wouldn't dump that much salt on a rack of ribs.

Thx for looking and commenting...

Great color on those birds! I too use the Killer Hogs rub on chicken (and butts and ribs for that matter) and really like it.