New in KC

[jcofkc54]

I'm John Cameron, 54, in Mission, Kansas, suburb of Kansas City. Had the same wife for 37 years now. Tried smoking with electric smoker about 15 years ago and gave up.

At first of summer bought a cheapo water bullet smoker. Did OK with it a couple of times. Been admiring the Bandera every time I'm at Home Depot or WalMart but I hate to pay full price ($250 or $298). Well about 5-6 weeks ago I'm just running around town and stopped in a Wally Work and the have this NB horizontal smoker sitting there with this large clearance tag for $50. Got a clerk and said I wanted it. He looks and in small print it said gas grill so he gets the manager. Well the manager said sorry it goes over here but he would take $80 for the smoker. I told him I'd go $60 since it has been sitting out in the weather. He said OK and he thinks he has a new one in the box in the storage trailer.

Well he takes off and goes in the trailer and nosey me is right on his heels. He's looking and trys to move a new Bandera in the box out of the way and says you wouldn't want this would you, it's the largest smoker we carry. I say "sure would but those cost an arm and a leg." He then says "they normally sell for $248 but I want to clear out my summer stuff, you want it for $100". Well my daddy didn't raise no dummy and "I'll take it" came out without any thought.

Got it home and unloaded and put it together by myself. Wife got home and bounced off ceiling till she finally heard "Honey, It only cost $100".

Made a slide out coal grate with expanded metal and angle iron.

Seasoned it the first weekend and then did 2 chickens the next weekend. Chickens were good but skin was tuff.

Did a slab of ribs today and they were great. Just used rub and wetted down during smoking. Didn't even have to put any sauce on them when we ate. I do need to figure out how to cut membrain off the ribs.

Till later,
jcofkc54

 

[BBQchef33]

hey J..... you get the award for best deal of the year!!! 100 bucks for a new Bandera... !!!! You stole it from that poor guy. Now the proper thing to do, to eliminate any guilty feelings is to ship it to me... My address can me found in the memebr list.

anyway.. congratulations on the new addition.. and welcome to the group!


A quick gimme on the chickens... when they're like 95% done.. move them to the bottom shelf in the bandera to finish up. This dries out the skin a little and gets it crispy... I go one step further and remove the water pan too. Put the chicken on the rack just above the heihght of the waterpan.

Also, we have a mod called the "heat shield". its a piece of aluminum, cut to the size of a shelf. then cut out semicircle in the center one side(4-5 inches wide at the edge and about 2-3 inchs deep. You put this shield on a shelf with the cutout on the side opposite the firebox. It effectively reduces the size of the cook chamber, and in the case of chicken will reflect some heat back down helping it get crispy. its and easy mod, and really helpful.

Download the Bandera 101 document in our files section. It has lots of bandera specific stuff in it, as well as pics of the mods and some good general info also.

 

[Bill-Chicago]

Great to have you aboard JC.

 

[chad]

Welcome.

You definately got a deal! I can't find a Bandera or any other offset smoker on sale, ever, anywhere (whine!!).

However, I do keep looking.

Take a look through the recipes and archives -- there's lots of good info in there.

 

[midnight]

You got a better deal than I did on your smoker!

just a tip about cutting membrane off ribs: lift one corner with a knife then grab it using a paper towel and it will pull right off, but you must use the paper towel or it will slip.


Hey DFlittle, if you ever get up to SD, bring your walet. Almost every store that sells grills up here has off set smokers on clearance, nobody up here knows how to use them! I see lots of NB off sets for $50 to $70 all the time.

 

[chad]

if you ever get up to SD, bring your walet

If I ever get to SD Ha! Closest I ever came was Idaho in 1989 -- had to visit Mountain Home AFB near Boise.

It's sad -- we have sales around here but mostly on grills. Water smokers get discounted but the offsets hardly ever come down more that $10-15 bucks. I keep looking though!!