Mark H. FL
New member
Hello all. Been lurking for a bit and just bought an 18" WSM. Made the basic chicken listed on this site, no water, foil pan, all vents opened. Cook took 1.5 hours for a 6 pound butterfly prepped chicken. According to my temp probe, temperatures ran 50 degrees hotter on the top grate than at the lid. I wasn't expecting that as my prior experiences with an offset smoker had the opposite effect. Might have to do with probe placement so will play with that. Chicken turned out great but even though I ran the smoker hot (350 grate temp vs 300 lid) skin was not crispy so will have to see what I can do about that. Lots of good information here.