1st Smoke; 2 Chickens and some questions

Put together my 18.5 WSM yesterday and propmptly lit it up. Put about 6.5 pounds of K-Comp (Kingsford Competition briquettes, which I bought because that is what Costco sells, and I was at Costco buying large amounts of meat.)

I lit 2 Weber started cubes under the pile, in the ring at about the 12:00 and 6:00 positions, if the ring were a clock. I let that pile go with the middle section off for 10-15 minutes, then I put the middle on, filling the water bowl about 2/3 full with hot tap water. On the top grate I put 2 whole chickens, breast side up, using a rub of vegetable oil and a basic rub of salt, pepper, and a spice blend(paprika based).

Top vents were wide open throughout, and I had 2 different probe wires running through those.

I used no wood for smoke. I wanted to try just the k-comp on the 1st usage.
Put it all together and watched the temp quickly go to to nearly 300 (all bottom vents 1/2 open), so I closed 2 vents completely and held one at about 1/3 open. The temp got back to 275, but without touching it, it crept slowly and steadily down to 200 over the course of 3 hours. By then the chicken was only 157 interal, so I opened up all the vents, but I couldn't get the temp to rebound upward. I threw in 7 more briquettes, then the temp got back to 215 with the vents opened wide. Another hour and a quarter the chicken registered at 168 in the white meat, so I took them off and we ate.


The chickens were a mild blond in color, not a robust gold and nowhere near brown. I'd like to see more GB&D : gold brown and delicious. Even though I though 168 would "medium well" for chicken, it was thoroughly moist- prolly the most moist chicken I have ever had. Undercooked chicken gives me the heebie-jeebies, so I tend to overcook it. It was nice to have moist chicken without the hint of pink under-doneness. They had relatively little smokiness in the flavor of the meat- I'll chalk that up to a lack of smoke wood.


I had 3 thermometers going:
1st) THe weber one in the lid.
2nd) A Polder probe style reading just inside the lid, so close to the chicken and not far from #1 above
3rd) A new fangled two-reading Polder whose probe, in the chicken, senses both the internal temp of the food and the air temp of the cooking environment

#2 was consistently 50 degrees above #3. A possibility is that the temp of the chicken itself was pulling the reading for #3 downward.

#1 was consistently halfway between #2 and #3.


I will have to check them all in boiling water for an independent test.



It was fun and delicious. I will have to practice getting a temp to remain constant for hours and hours at a time, because my main goal is cooking many pork shoulders.

I didn't notice how much k-comp was left. The temp also dropped significantly during the 5 hour afternoon smoke. The warm afternoon temp (65) in the sun turned to cool evening air in the shade - maybe a 20 degree or more drop.



So questions: How do I get the birds more golden?

Is K-Comp a good choice?

Is keeping a steady 250 as easy as finding the exact balance point on the bottom vents?

What is the temp at which the coals are "out"? In other words, if I let it drop to 180, is it even possible to stoke it back up to a higher temp without relighting? Is that number 170? 190?



Do people oil their meat before cooking? {hey, quit thinking that, let's try to keep this rated G okay?}

You'll need a higher cooktemp for more golden. Higher still if you want crisp skin.

I suggest sticking with one therm reading and working off that (my choice: the one in the lid vent).

I like K comp - and high quality lump. I use either or both.

Not an exact balance point, just close enough. If you want to target a temp (or, better, a narrow temp range) Minion the start and catch temps on the way up.

Whether or not you can stoke temps after a drop depends on what's going on. Temps that low because most of the fuel is gone? You'll need to add. Low because there's a lot of unlit? You can stoke.

I don't oil most things. Chicken, yes - I put flavored butter under the skin and flavored oil or butter on the surface. But I'm going for deep color and crisp skin, so I cook 200? higher than you did.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I don't oil most things. Chicken, yes - I put flavored butter under the skin and flavored oil or butter on the surface. But I'm going for deep color and crisp skin, so I cook 200? higher than you did. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Whenever I do a butter under the skin, I usually end up eating the skin from the plate, totally separated from the meat. I mean, Ill pick a bit of both on my fork... But they are definitely separate. Which makes sense in a way, 'cause I loosened it to get the butter in there. Do you do anything to keep them together better, or you you just let them come apart from each other?

First, when you select a chicken get one with intact skin. Use a small spoon for the compound butter and enter in from the neck end first, then the cavity end, separating the skin as needed but leaving it attached along the sides and, if possible along the breastbone ridge. When the chicken is done and rested remove the legs and things (together or separately) then separate the breast from the back, cutting just below where the skin is attached. Cut through the breastbone right on the ridge. Serve. Or, alternatively, Remove the breast meat from the bone taking care to hold the skin well while doing so, then slice the meat with the skin (using a very sharp, thin-bladed knife) and serve sliced oe, barring that (sometimes none of this works with chicken bo matter how hard one tries), remove the breast from the bone, slice and fan for serving, finely chop the skin and sprinkle it over the slices (as if you planned to do this all along).

I've been going in with my fingers and hand. I'm probably too random with what parts of the skin are loosened. Thanks.