Dan C. FL
TVWBB Pro
I decided to try something new yesterday. In the unending quest for the perfect BBQ chicken, I decided to do a little experiment. I know that I can grill chicken on my kettle and get it to come out tasting great and with crispy skin. I'm still working on getting the Weber rotisserie to do that, and I know that I can't quite get the skin the way I want it when I do a simple smoke. I decided that I'd try and do a little high heat smoke.
I lit a full chimney of KBB and threw it in the 14" WSM (without the water pan) with a couple of hunks of cherry. Initially, the temp went way up to almost 450*, but with a little vent adjusting and adding the chicken, the temp dropped down and stayed between 330*-355* for the duration of the cook. The cook lasted about an hour. I wasn't paying that close of attention because I was talking on the phone so I ended up with the chicken temp probably 10* too hot (190* at the thigh and 180* at the breast), but the chicken was still fine.
Here's the chicken resting:
Here's what it looked like from the inside:
The skin came out better than most of my previous attempts. It was much less chewy, but still not perfect. Also, I couldn't find the rub recipe that I wanted so I just winged it. That didn't work out too well. Oh well. They can't all be winners.
I had hoped to get more cooking done this past weekend. The wife had gotten some beef ribs (you may have seen my post about them being boneless) that I was going to cook on Sunday, but the weather stunk. It would have been nice to be able to use the smoker, I could've used the distraction.
For the last decade, my house has been a two human, three Fur Baby home. Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to one of our girls, Zoey. When my wife and I first moved here, we got our dachshund. She's a beautiful sweet girl, but I had always wanted a bigger dog. A little after we moved into our house, we made that happen. We got a cute, slightly rambunctious, but very obedient lab/border collie/God Knows What Else 3 month old puppy. She and the dachshund got along very well and played and just had a great old time. But, as the pup grew, it began to be unfair to have her playing with the dachshund...it just didn't look like the doxie was having fun. So, the wife and I set out to find a play mate for the puppy.
When we first walked in, we noticed a big Great Pyrenees stuffed into a much too small kennel. My wife pointed her out and I quickly said, "NO. I don't think we want a dog THAT big." We looked around at the others...All of the dogs they had at the rescue event that looked like they would grow to be about the same size as our lovable mutt were absolute spazzes. They didn't get along with our mutt or they were just too energetic to fit in with our laid-back clan. Meanwhile, that poor GP was just chilling out in the kennel not getting any attention. My wife decided we needed to walk her. As we did so, the foster parent explained that she had no intention of bringing her because she was dirty and covered in ticks from being allowed to roam free at their farm. She just brought her on a last minute whim. She just fit in perfectly with our clan. So, we took her home with the understanding that the foster would be by shortly to do a home inspection. By the time the foster parent got there, we had bathed and pulled all of the ticks off of Zoey. It was settled.
There are lots of great stories about her to share, but this post is getting long as is. Suffice it to say, she'd been an awesome part of our family for the past 10 years. But, unfortunately, last week she took a turn for the worst. We knew it was the right decision, but that didn't make Thursday any easier. We got a couple of cheeseburgers, fed them to her, and then said goodbye. I didn't know that it would be so dang hard. So, I'm trying to think of the better days as we adjust to life without her. She was a great, great girl and we were lucky to have her.
(Zoey Dressed up for Halloween. She loved to greet the neighborhood kids!)
I lit a full chimney of KBB and threw it in the 14" WSM (without the water pan) with a couple of hunks of cherry. Initially, the temp went way up to almost 450*, but with a little vent adjusting and adding the chicken, the temp dropped down and stayed between 330*-355* for the duration of the cook. The cook lasted about an hour. I wasn't paying that close of attention because I was talking on the phone so I ended up with the chicken temp probably 10* too hot (190* at the thigh and 180* at the breast), but the chicken was still fine.
Here's the chicken resting:
Here's what it looked like from the inside:
The skin came out better than most of my previous attempts. It was much less chewy, but still not perfect. Also, I couldn't find the rub recipe that I wanted so I just winged it. That didn't work out too well. Oh well. They can't all be winners.
I had hoped to get more cooking done this past weekend. The wife had gotten some beef ribs (you may have seen my post about them being boneless) that I was going to cook on Sunday, but the weather stunk. It would have been nice to be able to use the smoker, I could've used the distraction.
For the last decade, my house has been a two human, three Fur Baby home. Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to one of our girls, Zoey. When my wife and I first moved here, we got our dachshund. She's a beautiful sweet girl, but I had always wanted a bigger dog. A little after we moved into our house, we made that happen. We got a cute, slightly rambunctious, but very obedient lab/border collie/God Knows What Else 3 month old puppy. She and the dachshund got along very well and played and just had a great old time. But, as the pup grew, it began to be unfair to have her playing with the dachshund...it just didn't look like the doxie was having fun. So, the wife and I set out to find a play mate for the puppy.
When we first walked in, we noticed a big Great Pyrenees stuffed into a much too small kennel. My wife pointed her out and I quickly said, "NO. I don't think we want a dog THAT big." We looked around at the others...All of the dogs they had at the rescue event that looked like they would grow to be about the same size as our lovable mutt were absolute spazzes. They didn't get along with our mutt or they were just too energetic to fit in with our laid-back clan. Meanwhile, that poor GP was just chilling out in the kennel not getting any attention. My wife decided we needed to walk her. As we did so, the foster parent explained that she had no intention of bringing her because she was dirty and covered in ticks from being allowed to roam free at their farm. She just brought her on a last minute whim. She just fit in perfectly with our clan. So, we took her home with the understanding that the foster would be by shortly to do a home inspection. By the time the foster parent got there, we had bathed and pulled all of the ticks off of Zoey. It was settled.
There are lots of great stories about her to share, but this post is getting long as is. Suffice it to say, she'd been an awesome part of our family for the past 10 years. But, unfortunately, last week she took a turn for the worst. We knew it was the right decision, but that didn't make Thursday any easier. We got a couple of cheeseburgers, fed them to her, and then said goodbye. I didn't know that it would be so dang hard. So, I'm trying to think of the better days as we adjust to life without her. She was a great, great girl and we were lucky to have her.
(Zoey Dressed up for Halloween. She loved to greet the neighborhood kids!)
