First Smoke While Tailgating Ambitions


 

HLarson3

New member
Greetings all,

Thanks to continual lurking and salivating over the photos of mini wsm builds and amazing smokes, my Mini-WSM kit for the SJS arrives today from TVWBB member Phil S. After falling in love with my 22.5" OTG, I'm very stoked to start the next part of my Weber cooking journey.

My wife and I are tailgating at the upcoming Chiefs/Orange Team game at Arrowhead Stadium in KC. It's nearly sacrilegious to tailgate in KC by merely grilling burgers and brats, so I'm wanting to "kick it up a notch" if at all possible.

We plan to arrive about 4 hours before kickoff, and our one-year old son will be with us. Given that this is my first real attempt at smoking anything, what do you recommend? Is there enough time to get the coals up to temp and cook a nice spatchcock chicken? Are there any simple sides I could cook along with the chicken? I'm thinking of doing a simple "Get everything warmed up and assembled" check on Wednesday to work out any kinks in my plan.

Thanks in advance for your help.
 
I like your idea of doing a test run or two before the game. With a 1 year old you'll have to factor in time to park, unload and setup, get your smoker going, eating, packing stuff back up, then getting to your seat in time for kickoff. All of that adds up.

I think chicken of some sort will be your fastest cook. Try cooking it in your driveway with only the stuff you would pack for the tailgate. See how long it takes from setup to finish then adjust accordingly. If you had two racks you could pre-cook some baked beans and finish them with some smoke. Maybe even put together some ABT's or a fatty.
 
I like the chicken idea, with a hot smoke (350°+) you should be okay, provided you arrive on time and there are no other hiccups. Another good choice would be tri tip. Once again hot smoke. Be prepared and have everything prepped and ready to go on the grill. Preseason whatever you plan on cooking at home. If you decide on spatching the bird do that at home too.

Use the side light method that I have posted here to get your pit up to temp faster. Make sure you have a good way to measure pit temp and the internal temp of what you are cooking. I would bring already prepared sides since you don't have much experience. Put together a box with everything you need. Paper towels, forks, spoons,etc.

Bring yourself a snuff can for your spent charcoal to go into. Mine is a 3 gallon +/- galvanized bucket with locking lid, seals air tight. Do not put this in your rig when you go into the game. I would add water to it too, just in case some yahoo decides it looks like a good thing to mess with while your at the game. Normally I just snuff the coals in the Mini, but BBQ's like to disappear at functions like this and I'd rather loose a hot bucket of coals than my mini. Never put a bbq with hot coals into your rig.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I am with you, and am going to show up early, ready to heat up and throw that bird on the rack.
 
Would a whole spatchcock chicken fit in the mini WSM flat? I am sure you could stick a whole chicken vertically like a beer can chicken.
Set up, wait for coals to light and cook time does not leave a huge window of time but you can make something work.

In my opinion I think you will be bettered served doing something like wings/chicken lollipops as opposed to a whole chicken. You can prep wings/chicken pops prior to arriving, you don't have to carve something like a whole chicken and you can eat with one hand....
That's my two cents but you can get as fancy as you want.

Good luck against "the team in orange" haha
 

 

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