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.
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.