Crispy Chicken Skin on WSM?

(repost from alt.food.barbecue)

We had two whole chickens sitting around, so we decided to fix 'em both on the WSM. We spatchcocked one and applied a rub made up of paprika, cayenne, cumin, fennel seed, coriander, and red mustard seed, all ground in a coffee grinder. The other we left whole, but spread an herb butter containing sage, tarragon, and prosciutto underneath the skin, then painted the outside with melted butter, salt and pepper. Inside the cavity, we put in half a lemon and some sprigs of rosemary.

I started a chimney of Lazzari mesquite lump and once that got going poured them over a chimney's worth of unlit lump in the charcoal ring. I had filled the water pan with sand. Put the cover on the smoker but left all vents wide open. The dome temp rose to 350.

Put the spatchcocked bird on the bottom rack and then whole bird on the top. Temp dropped to 300. Tossed a foil packet containing a handful each of apple chips and oak chips onto the coals.

The dome temp slowly rose back to 350 over the next hour. A remote probe thermometer stuck in the thigh of the whole bird read only 150 by then. It took an hour and 45 minutes for the thigh to reach 180 internal. Pulled them both off and tented in foil.

(pics on alt.binaries.food)

The chickens were moist and succulent, including the breast meat. When we cut into the spatchcocked chicken, the juices actually spurted out! No smoke ring to speak of, but the meat had a nice smoky flavor.

The main problem was that the skin was tough. It wasn't rubbery so much as it was plain hard to chew. Too bad, because the rub was sure tasty.

How do you get crispy chicken skin worth eating on a WSM? If it means cooking at higher temps, should I have just cooked direct over the coals instead of using a sand-filled pan?

Smoking poultry does not crisp up the skin so you have to grill it off to do that chore at the end of the cook. Need to be careful not to burn it to a crisp.
Jim

I have never cooked on a WSM yet. Just got it today and put it together /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif But what if you were to leave the water pan empty or take it out and cook without it. Would it give it a more crisp skin. I know when I cook chicken or turkey on my grill with the vents wide open using indirect method. I get a nice crisp skin.
Might be worth a try. I know if you take the pan out it's actually not smoking it's grilling. But then again cooking at temps in the 300's even indirectly is actually considered grilling not smoking right?

The problem I have with post grilling, is that the slow smoking seems to have rendered all the fat under the skin. Thus the grilled skin just turns from nasty soft rubber into hardened rubber. It's still tastes rubbery and nasty.

But on the plus side, the chicken is wonderful and no one complains about the skin.

I'm still looking for that perfect smokey tender meat & crispy delicious skin combo.

Maybe I need to baste with butter before putting the chicken on the grill at the end.

Since I remove the skin to reduce the amount of fat I consume, I really don't know why I'm making this posts ? However, I see two irreconsidable situations. First, if you grill the skin at the beginning you'll get crisk skin, but the meat of the chicken won't get the benefit of the fat keeping it moist during the cook. Second, if you wait till the end the chicken will have used the fat from the skin to stay moist and cannot get crisp when you grill it. Thus, it is, as most things in life, a compromise.

PRG

And that is why I dont bother to use my wsm for chicken. I find its easier to maintain higher temps on a grill with an inderect heating methode.
True it doesnt get as much smokey flavor but the skin comes out great. I agree with Paul and clay.
For my taste and the way I expect the skin to be, post grilling just doesnt do it. But everyone has different expectations of what they like and look for in their chicken.

I think thats why Ive never thought chicken is a good recomendation for first cooks in the WSM. Not everyone is going to feel the same way about what comes off at the end of the cook. Some will love it, some think its -ok and others will be really disapointed .
Jim