P0rkButt
Found some matches.
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2016
- Location
- Greenbri...
Hi BBQ Brethren. Today has been a long day of chores: cutting a few acres of pasture, lugging more sections of the 50' oak tree that fell on a steep slope of my property a few weeks ago, hauling trash to the dump...
I'm glad the wife had asked me to smoke 2 whole chickens today. It we a bit hectic getting things going with all the other goings-on, but we made it. I tried a recipe by Bill Gillespie from his book, with a change or two.
This morning around 9:30 AM I opened the thawed chickens and trimmed them into halves. Then I loosened the skin and salted the breast and thigh under the skin, and salted the skin all around. We sat that in the fridge until around 3:00 PM. I placed two 2" slices of Hickory and one chunk of Apple wood in the coal ring at the vent locations. I then filled the charcoal ring with KBB and lit 12-14 coals in the chimney. When ready, I dumped them in the center of the unlit coals and left the bottom section open to air for about 5 minutes for the other coals to catch.
Today was my first time trying an empty water pan, taking advice from Harry Soo's postings online. I double foiled my water pan like he does so all I have to do is remove the outer layer and refoil for next time. I have to say, I was shocked at how easy it was to dial in temps this way. I feel like the WSM is far more responsive to vent changes and I hardly had to do anything to dial in the thermo to 250-252 exactly.
The chicken halves were rubbed under the skin and on top the skin with a Dijon Garlic wet rub per Gillespie's recipe. They went on the smoker and cooked for about 2 hours. During this time I hauled off the trash, about a 40 minute round trip. Came back to the WSM hovering at 250 exactly. Sweet.
Once the thermo probe in the chicken breast read 145, I took the lid and mid-section off the bottom section and blew the coals, getting a pretty good fire going. After about 3-5 minutes of this, I reassembled the WSM and got the smoker up to 298-302 to crisp the skin some and finish the cook. This worked pretty well but higher temps would have probably done a little better, or dropping the grate down to the coals and doing a direct sear on the skin, but I'm still very happy with the results.
The small sample I tasted was amazing... Now the wife is calling us to come for dinner. Here's what I'm about to feast on:
I'm glad the wife had asked me to smoke 2 whole chickens today. It we a bit hectic getting things going with all the other goings-on, but we made it. I tried a recipe by Bill Gillespie from his book, with a change or two.
This morning around 9:30 AM I opened the thawed chickens and trimmed them into halves. Then I loosened the skin and salted the breast and thigh under the skin, and salted the skin all around. We sat that in the fridge until around 3:00 PM. I placed two 2" slices of Hickory and one chunk of Apple wood in the coal ring at the vent locations. I then filled the charcoal ring with KBB and lit 12-14 coals in the chimney. When ready, I dumped them in the center of the unlit coals and left the bottom section open to air for about 5 minutes for the other coals to catch.
Today was my first time trying an empty water pan, taking advice from Harry Soo's postings online. I double foiled my water pan like he does so all I have to do is remove the outer layer and refoil for next time. I have to say, I was shocked at how easy it was to dial in temps this way. I feel like the WSM is far more responsive to vent changes and I hardly had to do anything to dial in the thermo to 250-252 exactly.
The chicken halves were rubbed under the skin and on top the skin with a Dijon Garlic wet rub per Gillespie's recipe. They went on the smoker and cooked for about 2 hours. During this time I hauled off the trash, about a 40 minute round trip. Came back to the WSM hovering at 250 exactly. Sweet.
Once the thermo probe in the chicken breast read 145, I took the lid and mid-section off the bottom section and blew the coals, getting a pretty good fire going. After about 3-5 minutes of this, I reassembled the WSM and got the smoker up to 298-302 to crisp the skin some and finish the cook. This worked pretty well but higher temps would have probably done a little better, or dropping the grate down to the coals and doing a direct sear on the skin, but I'm still very happy with the results.
The small sample I tasted was amazing... Now the wife is calling us to come for dinner. Here's what I'm about to feast on:
