pull_my_butt
Knows what a fatty is.
I smoked my first chicken last night and it was terrible. I don't think a pack of coyotes would have eaten it. What a waste of charcoal last night. Here's what I did and maybe you guys can help me out. Also, a few other questions too.
I had a 4.5 lb. bird and tried to keep heat at around 350 but it was hard to do on the cheap off-set smoker so it varied from 250-350 but again, I did try to keep it as best I could at 350.
I just used salt and pepper, just to get a baseline taste of how a smoked bird is supposed to be, and there was no flavor but in the skin. The skin itself, was terrible. It looked wrinkly and the skin didn't appear to be "one with the chicken." It kinda just cooked and didn't crisp but got hard and leathery. The skin looked and felt more like it was just a casing and there was no flavor to the chicken that came from the skin. I hope that makes sense.
What would you do to improve? Also, I usually use the Royal Oak natural charcoal but this time, I used the Kingsford briquettes. Now, do you guys think these charcoal briquettes leave more ash? I noticed a lot more ash than I usually get when I use the lump charcoal, like Royal Oak. Just curious to what you think. I ask this because I noticed the skin had a lot of ash. I would run a spoon over it and would scrape up dark tar like gunk. It almost looked like a Castrol commercial. I don't know how the ash would have gotten over to the chicken from the fire box.
Also, is the heat fluctuation just for the sake of getting a better estimate on cook time or does the up/down heat actually affect taste and appearance of the food?
Thanks to all how reply. Cheers.
I had a 4.5 lb. bird and tried to keep heat at around 350 but it was hard to do on the cheap off-set smoker so it varied from 250-350 but again, I did try to keep it as best I could at 350.
I just used salt and pepper, just to get a baseline taste of how a smoked bird is supposed to be, and there was no flavor but in the skin. The skin itself, was terrible. It looked wrinkly and the skin didn't appear to be "one with the chicken." It kinda just cooked and didn't crisp but got hard and leathery. The skin looked and felt more like it was just a casing and there was no flavor to the chicken that came from the skin. I hope that makes sense.
What would you do to improve? Also, I usually use the Royal Oak natural charcoal but this time, I used the Kingsford briquettes. Now, do you guys think these charcoal briquettes leave more ash? I noticed a lot more ash than I usually get when I use the lump charcoal, like Royal Oak. Just curious to what you think. I ask this because I noticed the skin had a lot of ash. I would run a spoon over it and would scrape up dark tar like gunk. It almost looked like a Castrol commercial. I don't know how the ash would have gotten over to the chicken from the fire box.
Also, is the heat fluctuation just for the sake of getting a better estimate on cook time or does the up/down heat actually affect taste and appearance of the food?
Thanks to all how reply. Cheers.