Assassin Smoker - 2nd Firing - Cooked Drums and Thighs

Brethren, after a weeklong wait on Spring Break with the family, I finally made it back home yesterday to roll the new Assassin out of the garage again. As shown in the other post, I had heretofore only done the initial "seasoning run" on the new Assassin, no guru and no cooking. So yesterday morning, I rolled the Assassin Smoker out and filled the chute with KCB's bought on sale at Costco. I sparked up my new mini-torch and quickly lit the briquets resting on the fire grate in the firebox. I did not put any water in the water pan, but I did leave it in the smoker to "collect drippings". I shut the firebox door, opened the ball valve all the way, opened the smoke stack fully and went inside to find the BBQ Guru Jeff Conley sent with my new Assassin.

I didn't want to take the time to read any instructions, so I hoped I could just plug the various parts of the BBQ Guru together and it would work. I got the Viper fan out and pressed it firmly into the reducer on the ball valve - the reducer was already on the Assassin when it was delivered for a perfect fit! I then removed the painted metal cap off the probe hole in the back off the smoker and fed the pit thermoprobe into the smoke chamber and plugged it into the Digiq II controller box. I then ran the power cable from an extension cord to the controller box and plugged the cable off the Viper into the controller box. I then pressed the pit button, and moved the up button 'til it read 250, and that was it. A minute or two later I got down near the Viper and noticed it was running, and then noticed the little flashing light on the controller box telling me the fan was running.

OK, so far so good.

I sat down with a cold one and watched as the controller slowly crept up in temp. At the 200 degree mark, I shut the ball valve about 1/2 way. At the 225 degree mark, I tweaked it shut about 1/2 way more. The Viper marched right on up to 255 to 260, but within 15 minutes steadied out at 250 even. Impressive!! But I wanted to see it run steady for a couple of hours straight and see what would happen when I opened up the smoke chamber door a time or two.

So I watched the Guru on the Assassin for the next 2 hours, and it smoked along right at 250 LIKE A ROCK STAR! Steady eddie - pumping air as needed into the firebox to keep 'er right on temp. Very nice!

At this point I was ready to cook some supper. I put some chicken thighs and drums on a rack and threw some hickory chunks into the ash pan. Shut her up and within 15 minutes the BBQ Guru had the Assassin back at 250 - like a ROCK STAR! :eusa_clap

Two hours later, internal on the thighs and drums read 170 degrees, so I pulled 'em for a short rest. Family and I then promptly introduced that chicken into our stomachs - delicious!!! I did not take the time to crisp up the skin on the grill, but they were good anyway.

Overall impression so far on the Assassin and now using the BBQ Guru - OUTSTANDING! Next weekend, couple of beef briskets are up.

Here are some pics for your viewing pleasure gentlemen.

Assassin set up and coming up to temp:



The 10 cfm Viper on the ball valve. You can see the final set point on valve.



Pit temp probe running into the back of the Assassin:



Shot showing the BBQ Guru Digiq II holding the Assassin steady at 250:



Door temperature dial when the Guru probe in the pit says it was 250 - close enuff!!



Here is a shot about 1 hour into the chicken smoke - looking good!




And the finished product right before we ate it!!


I like the Assassin Smoker and it seems like it works very well with the BBQ Guru. I'm going to do briskets overnight next weekend, and so we'll see how that goes.

Trey
Houston

jmoney7269 said:

One fine lookin pit and food. Jumped over here from your other post. I noticed you had your ball valve closed and the guru 100% open, have you tried it the other way? Whatever works for you, do it for sure. What I have noticed with these verticals Cookin dry is that they need 25% intake on small cooks so I just slide the damper down on the guru rather than takin it off to look at the ball valve, guess I'm just anal like that.

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Yep, I looked at it wondering do I tweak the ball valve or tweak the inlet on the Viper? In both cases, it would be done "blind" if you will - I did not pull anything to "see" the position of the ball valve (wouldn't have for the Viper gate valve either).

I was sorta' concerned about repeatability, moving the ball valve handle around. In the end, I only moved it twice, and the Viper and BBQ Guru did the rest. I hope it is equally as easy when I do my first briskets on it next weekend.

Kave Dweller said:

Guru's are amazing!

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I've only used it once, but it worked very well the day I used it!! I'm looking forward to smoking a brisket or two this weekend with the Assassin and the BBQ Guru.

jmoney7269 said:

Cool, whatever works is whatever works, gurus are freakin awesome for sure. The fuller the pit gets, the more natural draft you will need to give the pit though. When Cookin dry on the vault, completely loaded up 275 is my max temp, and as you start removing done food from the cooker, gotta start dampening it back down or you'll have 400 right fast! All insulated verticals rock! What else on earth could cook 5-10 briskets on 10 lbs of charcoal and a few chunks of wood.

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JMoney, this is good info dude. You know I'm a neophyte on the Assassin and Guru, so any advice is appreciated sir. I will be sure to watch things closely as changes occur - food in, food out, etc.

I was thinking of adding water to the pan for my next smoke, when I'll put a pair of briskets in the Assassin - although I'm not against a dry smoke. I understand warmup will take longer and fuel use will be higher, but I've done good smokes on stickburners using water too.

Anyway, appreciate the help.