Greetings


 

Mark H. FL

New member
Hello all. Been lurking for a bit and just bought an 18" WSM. Made the basic chicken listed on this site, no water, foil pan, all vents opened. Cook took 1.5 hours for a 6 pound butterfly prepped chicken. According to my temp probe, temperatures ran 50 degrees hotter on the top grate than at the lid. I wasn't expecting that as my prior experiences with an offset smoker had the opposite effect. Might have to do with probe placement so will play with that. Chicken turned out great but even though I ran the smoker hot (350 grate temp vs 300 lid) skin was not crispy so will have to see what I can do about that. Lots of good information here.
 
Welcome! I've don't that recipe and in all honesty I don't think I've gotten truly crispy skin either. I think the main thing is rendering the skin fat. Good luck!
 
Thanks. The process I followed mentions leaving the pan in. I will leave the pan out next time so I can compare
 
I might try it myself this weekend. I havn't tried it because I am reluctant to do a whole chicken. But nothing says you can't do just a few thighs or drumsticks,except there might be a little waste of charcoal. It seems like all the stores I go to around here,the chickens are the size of turkeys.
If I can find a couple small chickens i will definitely try it.
 
so if you were to cook a whole chicken, lets say a beer can chicken, would you just set it on the cooking grate and leave it? or have to turn it?
 
Yep, the days of chickens under five pounds around here seem to be a thing of the past. The smallest I found this week were about 5.6 each. I can work with that size well enough but, when recipes ask for three pound birds, “it aint happening.”
If you beer can it, there should not be any need to turn it.
 
i must say i can't believe the smoker! it maintains temperatures incredibly. it is 4 degrees in New Canada Maine right now. I've been smoking a chicken for almost two hours and the temperature has kept in the smoker at 175 for two hours. It is absolutely amazing. I did put water in the pan. I have yet to check the crispiness, but the internal thigh temperature at 1.5 hours was 155. I'm thinking two hours (which is 10 minutes from now) it will be cooked......im excited....:)
 
I'm gonna do the hot and fast method here pretty quick with just thighs. It's right at 30 degrees outside. I'm gonna shoot for a lid temp of 300 - 350. Meat temp of 170-175 Leaving the water pan out.
I'll let you know how it comes out. But I bet it will be great. I have yet to follow Chris's directions where it didn't turn out.:cool:
 
Well,the chicken came out good. But the skin was not so great. I struggled to get it hot enough.
Before I put the chicken on,the gauge on the lid was pegged,so i closed the bottom vents a little. When I put the chicken on the temp dropped a bunch,and i struggled to get the temp back up until I started to get flareups. If I do this again I will probably use 2 full chimneys of charcoal and keep the vents wide open no matter what.
Also while my probe said i was in the 170-175 range I din't think it was done enough. I have had this problem doing kettle fried chicken also.
I think I am going to shoot for 190 to 200 next time.
 
Was going to try a chicken again but being the fall season turkey is cheaper than chicken so I will do that sometime next week when it thaws out. I also can't find a chicken less than 6 pounds which was what I smoked last time and it came out fine. On the temp, do you think your probe is off or do you just like your bird cooked longer?
 
I don't think my probe is off. It's a thermoworks thermo pen. It might be I'm checkin the temp of 10 pieces of chicken,and the fire starts to flare up and things are just too hectic. I would rather have it over done,than not done enough
 
The Basic Chicken recipe mentioned by Mark pre-dates the Hot & Fast Chicken recipe.

The Basic recipe is designed to help a new user get a success under their belt. It uses an empty water pan, the chicken is cooked skin side up on the top grate and never turned, you build a hot fire with vents wide open, don't worry about the cooker temp, and cook the chicken to the right internal temp, then remove the middle section and move the cooking grate directly over the hot coals, turn the chicken skin side down, and "crisp" the skin.

The Hot & Fast recipe removes the water pan and starts the chicken skin side down for 30 minutes over the hottest fire you can build, then flips the chicken for another 15-30 minutes until cooked to the right internal temp. It's actually easier than "basic" chicken and probably should replace the basic recipe.

"Crispy" is something we rarely, if ever, achieve in the WSM no matter the method...and I should probably not use that term when writing these articles. :D
 

 

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