1st cook - perfect chicken......but 6 hours!


 

Dan Hay

New member
Hello all. I set up my new 14.5 inch WSM yesterday. After 3 hours of "burn off", I reloaded the charcoal, added a birch plank, and tried to smoke two chickens. These were spatchcocked and both placed on the upper grill. I used an electronic temperature gauge with two probes - one inside the chicken breast, the other beside the Chicken. There wasn't a lot of space left on the top grill.

It took 6 hours to get to the recommended rda temperature for chicken (174F). Oven temp was pretty steady at around 220F. Why so long? Two theories-
1. Too much chicken on the grill. But thought I read that 2 chickens ok?!
2. My oven probe was reading the temp of hot air rising past the chicken into the smoker's dome. The real temp at the top was a lot lower. In fact, the built in Weber thermometer did show a lower temp, but I agnored it as that was the advice on here (not blaming you!)

Were it not for the great results and the kids eating all the side orders while waiting for the chicken, I might not have survived the night! Please help before my smoking career is restricted by a mutinous family.
 
There seem to be two camps when it comes to how to cook whole chicken on the smoker. Some do low and slow, some prefer hot and fast. For whole chicken I'm in the hot and fast camp. I'd shoot for about 350F. This gets the job done a lot faster and you end up with nicely done skin. I don't like low and slow because the skin comes out flabby (at least it always has for me) and, as you observed, it takes forever. At 220F you were at the very low end of low and slow.

If I'm smoking for pulled chicken where I know I'm going to throw away the skin, then I'll usually cook at a lower temp. I generally use thighs for that so the smaller pieces tend to cook faster so it still isn't a terribly long cook. I leave the skins on while cooking but discard them before pulling the chicken.

As to why it took so long to get to your desired temp, there's a long answer involving thermodynamics and evaporative cooling. The short answer is your cook temp was too low. Even if you want to do it mostly at lower temp, I'd suggest starting with 250F and jacking the temp up to 325F or more after the internal hits about 160F. Or just go 325F the whole way next time and see how you like it. The bird will still take on plenty of smoke.
 
Thanks for the feedback, how do you get the WSM so hot. E.g. Do you still use the pan, if so how much water?
 
I'm glad you liked the results of the chicken.

When I've done oven roasted chicken, I've done it hot, at 375 degrees and 15 mins per pound.

For the WSM, the first time I tried it was a low temp (~ 250). It took a little over 4 hours to get to 155, at which point I stopped it. Normally I go for 165 for poultry, but it just felt long enough. I had 2 different whole chicken cooks in August.

I liked the way the skin came out. Although I wouldn't be opposed to trying JayHeyl's hotter cook at some point, if I felt like it.

If you don't like how the skin came out, then you should try a hotter cook.

To get a hotter cook, I think you need to not use the water pan.

I didn't need to refuel, not even when I did a whole turkey (~ 5 hours to get to 160 degrees), but I think that's because I have the 18" WSM.

Nevermind, I re-read the OP. I think you mean you refueled before starting the real cook, after the burn off. I don't think you refueled during the cook.

What's a "birch plank"?

- - - Updated - - -

Did you put both chickens on the top grill?
 
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Thanks Arun - to answer your questions:
- yes, I refuelled before the main cook, not during it
- "birch plank" means a piece of raw, split silver birch wood with dimensions of 1/2 inch x 3 inches x 5 inches
- both chickens on the top grill (they had been spatchcocked and it was pretty tight for space!
 
You managed to get two split birds nested together on a single rack in the 14.5" WSM?

That's a feat in itself. :cool:

I think poultry does better at high heat, and I wouldn't hesitate to remove the water pan and treat the smoker as a pit barrel cooker of sorts. Removing the pan will give you a hotter cook, and if that isn't enough, tilt the lid just a bit, and the WSM will get even hotter.
 
Thanks for the feedback, how do you get the WSM so hot. E.g. Do you still use the pan, if so how much water?
With water in the pan my WSM doesn't want to go much above 275F. If you want higher temps, run with the pan dry. You still want it in there to act as a heat shield and to catch the grease. I'd suggest lining it with heavy duty aluminum foil to make cleanup easier. Temperature adjustment is a bit less forgiving without the water but it's still quite manageable with practice. Just make only small changes in the bottom vents and then wait at least 15 minutes to see how the WSM reacts.
 
I cooked one chicken yesterday (before the additional comments). I used no water, but still struggled to get the temperature above 265F. I even took the top and mid sections off after an hour and used a BBQ blower to get the briquettes really hot. Results was very tasty but still took waaay too long (2.5 hours). I gave the bird a quick blast under my kitchen electric grill to finish it off.

I think next time I will ditch the drip tray. Or try the larger smoker (Yes, perhaps being a bit over enthusiastic and being unable to walk past a bargain I bought a 14.5 inch and a 22 inch WSM when my local BBQ store was selling Weber kit for 40% off at their end of season sale.)
 
Rusty - Yes, two split birds on top rack of 14.5" WSM. One was cut in two. Very snug!

Lew - linked article is very clear, thanks. I see you have a 14.5" and 22" as I have. Apart from amount of fuel etc, are they similar to operate or what is the main thing to watch out for?
 
I think the amount of meat placed on a single rack hindered cook times somewhat. Nothing wrong with that, but higher heat will certainly help shorten cook times.

Chicken and high heat tend to go together. :smilekettle:
 
I cooked one chicken yesterday (before the additional comments). I used no water, but still struggled to get the temperature above 265F.

Something's not right. With a reasonable fuel load you should easily be able to get close to 400F. At least I can with my 18". Perhaps the 14" would have a lower top end, but it shouldn't be that much lower. What are you using for fuel? (Type, brand) How much of it are you using? How are you getting it started? Are you using a variation of the Minion method?

I almost always use Kingsford in the blue bag (widely known as KBB). Unless it's a special cook where I'm looking for very low temps and using a kind of snake, I almost always fill the charcoal ring at least half way. That's what I'd do for chicken. For pork butt or brisket I'd load up as much as can possibly fit. I usually light a dozen or so briquettes in the chimney starter and, once ashed over, dump them in the center of the pile. This varies depending on what I'm trying to accomplish with the fire. For hot-and-fast for chicken I'd likely light a whole chimney and spread it across the top of the pile. You could also do like recommended ages ago, putting the lit charcoal in the bottom and adding several chimneys of unlit on top of it. This should get the whole of it going faster, which is fine for hot-and-fast chicken.
 
I never cooked on a 14.5" WSM, but if you have an uncooperative fire based on a full load of meat you can also crack the lid (which lets more air in and feeds the flames ) or go old school and flip the door over and prop it slightly open with a lever ( if applicable on the little guy )

Tim
 
Fuel - Weber briquettes
How much - I used a 3/4 full Weber large chimney for starting
Starting / Minion - I lit the chimney using fire lighters until flames were clearly at the top, then added this to the fire bowl that was half full of the same briquettes (at one side of the pit, not one on top of the other).
 
Dan, I just got the 14.5 for my birthday this month but so far it cooks just like the other WSMs. I started with the 18.5 and used it for 6 years and my son gave me his 22.5 at Christmas. My daughter got the 18.5. I only use blue bag Kingsford and I can get hi heat with all three cookers and also hold low and slow. For hi heat I pull out the water pan and low and slow is done with the water pan or. on my 22.5, a foiled pizza pan in place. Any grease flare ups are far enough below the top grate that the meat doesn't get scorched. I like to experiment with the WSM just to see what it can do that Weber doesn't advertise.

When I do hi heat on the 22.5 I partially fill the charcoal ring and pour a full chimney of lit spread all over the top. That way all of the lit is igniting the charcoal underneath and I get max heat that way. I approached 400° F on my 22.5. I don't know if the 14.5 needs a full chimney of lit but spreading it all over the top works.

BTW - two spatchcocked chickens on the top grate is impressive. As Rusty said for the 14.5 it probably lengthened your cook.
 
I would either spread the lit charcoal on the bottom and add unlit on top of it or do like Lew said and spread the lit evenly on top of the unlit. In this situation you're looking to evenly light all the charcoal fairly quickly and then control the burn using the vents.

I've not used Weber charcoal but everything I've read about it suggests it's very good and certainly unlikely to be the source of the problem.

Are you opening the bottom vents all the way?
 
This is open for debate, but I, personally, do not like charcoal burn-off smoke to penetrate my poultry. So far, I've not been a fan of low and slow for poultry due to the charcoal off-odor issue, unless one lets the smoker do it's thing for a given length of time which seems to take care of the problem even if there are non-lit coals in the waiting. (I've noticed this while doing the Minion method with pork butts)

If I'm going to do hot & fast chicken, I usually add a chimney full of lit, and then dump un-lit on top of that (if there's room), and wait for the charcoal smoke to burn off.

With the above said, Weber coals may not contribute to off-odor as bad as Kingsford and Royal Oak briquettes can.

Just another option to consider.
 
I'm going to do a hi heat cook this PM with the 14.5 to see how much lit I need to get to 400. I'll post experiment results tonight.
 
Weber is the only decent charcoal I've been able to find over here so far. I just Googled Kingsford, the only suppliers offering it ship from the US, you can imagine the crazy prices.

All vents were open (top and bottom).

Lew - I look forward to hearing the results of your experiment!
 

 

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