WSM Pork Butt and Beer Can Chicken


 
B

BobP

New member
Still kind of new to this Smoking thing, and want to get others opinions. This Sunday I'm going to smoke a 4 lb pork butt and a beer can chicken. Any help on Temp and time I should be looking for?
 
I'll be interested to hear from folk's experiences, because I'd think that a butt and a chicken would be very difficult to do together. The butt's gonna go low and slow for maybe 1.5 hrs/lb. I would think the chicken needs to go hot.

Maybe the best thing would be to do them in series. The butt's gonna need to rest anyway. So maybe do the butt alone. When it comes off, add a chimney of new fully going charcoal and do the chicken while the butt lies wrapped in a towel in a cooler.
 
The one time I did a beer can chicken it was a high heat cook, but this week I did a few separate cooks that included chicken wings and quarters at 250*. Both meals the chicken was the unanimous favorite at the table. And this was with some fairly stiff competition... prime rib, tri tip, and a bacon fatty.
Perhaps due to the size of the bird you might want to aim for a bit higher of a temperature. I find that pork shoulder does just fine anywhere up to 300*.
 
I would estimate about 6 hours for the butt and 4 hours for the bird at 225 so just put the butt on a couple hours earlier. You can always wrap and store the one that gets done first until the other is done.
 
If you do the bird at 225, just be resigned to the fact that the skin will probably be inedible, but the meat will be fantastic.

At lower temps (225-300), poultry skin turns to leather, while at higher temps (325-400) the skin is nice, crispy and tasty.
 
This is precisely why I own an 18 inch OTG. It actually started out as a OTS but I bought the additional ash catcher parts from Weber Parts.
When I bought it, I got the same stare-down as I did when I bought the motorcycle. But just like the bike, my wife grew to appreciate the little grill.
Anyway, It's great for 1-2 chickens, or 4-5 Shell steaks. It's really a no-mess no-fuss way to cook a small amount of food, and it's easy on my charcoal bucket.

Brett
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Andy Erickson:
If you do the bird at 225, just be resigned to the fact that the skin will probably be inedible, but the meat will be fantastic.

At lower temps (225-300), poultry skin turns to leather, while at higher temps (325-400) the skin is nice, crispy and tasty. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I did two chickens, split at those temps and my skin came out amazingly crispy, tasty and delish. Hardly leather.
 
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