Final report.
On Friday night, brined the chickens and butts. Used a solution of 1/4 sea salt, 1/8 cup lite soy sauce, garlic powder and onion powder to 2 quarts water. The all went into the brine about 6 PM.
The chickens went on at 9 AM, at 250 degrees with hickory chunks in the smoke box. They reached 155 degrees at about 11 AM. I put them in a large roasting pan under foil for another 30 minutes, bagged them and put them into the refrigerator.
Pork butts went on at 11:30AM at 200 degrees again with hickory chunks. They reached 160 at about 9 PM. Put them into a large foil pan, covered tightly with foil and put them back on. The reached 200 degrees at 11:30 PM. I took them out of the pan, foiled them put them in a towel lined cooler. At 1:30 AM, I removed them, let set 45 minutes and then pulled them. Surprisingly very little fat. Bagged the pork and put into the refrigerator.
We ended up going with just 2 briskets. I could not fit 3 with the pork roasts. I put them in the smoker with the pork butts at 2 PM. The briskets reached 160 at 11PM. I put them each into their own foil pan and covered tightly with foil. They hit 180 at about 1:30 AM and were tender at 2 AM. One was at 200 degrees the other was about 195. I took them out of the pans, wrapped tightly with foil and placed them into the same cooler the pork butts came out of. It was still warm from the pork.
Went to sleep at 3 AM. Woke up at 7:15, loaded up the family and drove to McAllen which is about 45 minutes away. We put the pork and the chickens into the oven to re-heat. Put the briskets into a roaster oven on lowest setting. This was about 9:15AM this morning. The brisket was still too hot to handle without oven mitts.
We were back from the church around 11AM. Sliced everything up. Have to say, it was probably the best brisket I have done yet. The pork roast was great and the chicken was also some of the best I have done. Went with fryers this time and I think that helped.
The briskets were great, very small amount of fat for a packer. I am guessing we had at least 30 lbs of cooked meat after trimming. The final head count for lunch was 30 and we probably had at least twice as much meat as we needed.
I made up a double recipe of my quick beans ala charra(see recipe section) and left out the japs for the kiddos and the guests from South Dakota. We put about 2 cups of the brisket juice and some of the meat trimmings into the beans. The beans were a big hit. I am sure people will be thinking about those all night.
Once again, thanks for all the advice. Being able to do the bbq was a huge help to my friends as they had lots of family coming in and that was one less thing they had to worry about. I think coolering the brisket and keeping it hot made a big difference in the serving quality. Plus, I was able to do everything for less than $100 which saved them lots of $$$$.
Well, I am dozing off as I type. If I remember anything else, I will add it later.
