Crispy chicken skin problems.

I recently tried brining a whole chicken with the Apple Brine for Turkey recipe featured this month on this web site. I brined a whole roasting chicken with the apple brine recipe for roughly 18 hours. I then removed the chicken from the brine, rinsed it in cold water, dried it with paper towels, and let it air dry in the fridge for 4 hours. Next I smoked the whole uncut chicken using cherry smoke wood and charcoal at 325 to 350 until it reached 165 F in the breast. The chicken was very moist and very flavorful. Probably the best chicken I ever made. The family loved it, including the kids that normally won't eat anything except breakfast cereal. But, the skin was no better than if I smoked it at 225 to 250. Is it because I brined the chicken for too long that the skin did not crisp up?

it's been my experience that truely crispy skin is hard to achieve unless you put it over a fire. next time you might want to try cooking it indirect (dry water pan) and then direct (w/out the water pan) for 5 minutes or so to see if it crisps the skin. i haven't personally tried but in theory it should work.

Just to be clear about things, I did not put any water in the water pan, but the pan was installed with foil during the entire cook.

Willard--

Try cutting the brine time substantially and upping the air-drying time. 5-7 hours is sufficient for a roaster. Air-dry a whole chicken overnight, chicken pieces 4 hours. Try to keep your temps up. If the skin darkens too much at higher temps for your taste cut the sugar back substantially.

Not to put a damper on things, but I finaly gave up on crisp skin from the Weber Bullet. I broke down and bought the powered spit for my Weber Kettle. I love that thing for poultry and rib roasts. The spit handles two chickens or a turkey up to about 12 ponds. Skin gets crisp. Meet is wonderfull and smokey (not really smoked). Now I feel like I have the total outdoor meat cook'n spectrum covered!