Greetings all,
My (wonderful) wife blessed me with an 18.5 and I'm looking forward to doing up some chicken this weekend as a first run through. Of course I'd like to be able to wow her (and her in-laws).
So, I remember as a kid my dad had a similar type of smoker (cylindrical with coal pan in bottom, water pan, and two-three racks). He made some of the most memorable meals with it. my favorite being a huge turkey up on the top rack, chickens in the middle rack (he'd swap out to a second set of chickens in the middle of the turkey cook time), and veggies down in the water pan.
Now, I'm not going to go quite that all out for my first time on the smoker, but I was hoping for some good tips.
I don't remember him doing anything to the chicken itself, just pure smoking. Does that make sense? can chicken that's only been smoked be good?
I'd like to do up 3 chickens - is that reasonably doable on my 18"? and if so, what would the wizards here recommend for temp and time?
Also, I searched and found some old posts about veggies down in the water pan, but nothing recent. Have there been any recent thoughts on dripping soaked veggies?
Thanks in advance! I'm already getting anxious for the weekend.
My (wonderful) wife blessed me with an 18.5 and I'm looking forward to doing up some chicken this weekend as a first run through. Of course I'd like to be able to wow her (and her in-laws).
So, I remember as a kid my dad had a similar type of smoker (cylindrical with coal pan in bottom, water pan, and two-three racks). He made some of the most memorable meals with it. my favorite being a huge turkey up on the top rack, chickens in the middle rack (he'd swap out to a second set of chickens in the middle of the turkey cook time), and veggies down in the water pan.
Now, I'm not going to go quite that all out for my first time on the smoker, but I was hoping for some good tips.
I don't remember him doing anything to the chicken itself, just pure smoking. Does that make sense? can chicken that's only been smoked be good?
I'd like to do up 3 chickens - is that reasonably doable on my 18"? and if so, what would the wizards here recommend for temp and time?
Also, I searched and found some old posts about veggies down in the water pan, but nothing recent. Have there been any recent thoughts on dripping soaked veggies?
Thanks in advance! I'm already getting anxious for the weekend.