I cooked 2 chickens today on my WSM. I noticed the first few times I have cooked on my weber, the food was great but i I still felt it could be more smokey. Even if i followed the guidelines for the amount of charcol and wood to use. The main thing that would happen is, it would stop putting out a lot of smoke after about an hour or 2 in. the temp would be still be ok, and a lot of people said that it's OK if you don't see any smoke, as long as its cooking. I still noticed the smoke flavor when it cooked like that wasn't as deep as my local bbq joint. You can tell when you burp hours after you eat some nicely smoked bbq, it still tastes like bbq. Thats what I like to have. Today I got that on my chickens!
Just learning how to use this smoker now I am feeling more confident. Today I cooked in light rain, got my charcol going,then opened the smoke door to make sure it was really lit (i may have had a problem before by closing door too early before a lot of the charcol was lit). Temp was actually pegged at the highest temp the thermometer can go to. I Waited til it dropped to around 300 and put my chicken on and about 5 chunks of hickory and waited til i saw the wood catch fire. It was great because I was getting lots of smoke and I wanted to do my chicken a little hotter than normal. An hour later I noticed the temp started slightly dropping down like it always does, so i opened up the smoke door,. Walked away for 5 minutes thinking it may or may not kick the fire back, but sure enough it kicked on high! Saw the fire kick back up (temps went back around 300) closed the door and watched the smoke come out again. It cooked mostly at around 250 with a lot of smoke output. Using this technique the chicken finished in about 3 hrs and the smoke flavor was more how I like it. I think on the WSM you really have to watch the smoker to make sure it's constantly putting out smoke. Seems like after an hr it dies down you gotta kick it back up and get the smoke output. Food tastes best that way. I had to open the door about 3 times on the cook to make sure it was smoking right. made a huge difference. Best chicken I ever cooked hands down!!!!!!
Just learning how to use this smoker now I am feeling more confident. Today I cooked in light rain, got my charcol going,then opened the smoke door to make sure it was really lit (i may have had a problem before by closing door too early before a lot of the charcol was lit). Temp was actually pegged at the highest temp the thermometer can go to. I Waited til it dropped to around 300 and put my chicken on and about 5 chunks of hickory and waited til i saw the wood catch fire. It was great because I was getting lots of smoke and I wanted to do my chicken a little hotter than normal. An hour later I noticed the temp started slightly dropping down like it always does, so i opened up the smoke door,. Walked away for 5 minutes thinking it may or may not kick the fire back, but sure enough it kicked on high! Saw the fire kick back up (temps went back around 300) closed the door and watched the smoke come out again. It cooked mostly at around 250 with a lot of smoke output. Using this technique the chicken finished in about 3 hrs and the smoke flavor was more how I like it. I think on the WSM you really have to watch the smoker to make sure it's constantly putting out smoke. Seems like after an hr it dies down you gotta kick it back up and get the smoke output. Food tastes best that way. I had to open the door about 3 times on the cook to make sure it was smoking right. made a huge difference. Best chicken I ever cooked hands down!!!!!!
Instead of opening the door, I prop the lid with a screwdriver or skewer for the entire cook. It improves the air flow enough that I can easily maintain 350 degree plus temps without any fluctuation. I'm guessing that opening the door meant your temps went up and down a bit. I also wait to put the middle section on until the coals are well lit in the bowl, maybe 20-30 minutes after I dump my charcoal lighter container on them. I put the wood chunks in just before I put on the middle section and the chicken. It usually means all the white smoke is gone before the food goes on, which I think tastes better. The advantage to the "skewer" technique is that you can walk away and not have to fiddle so much, just come back to check temp after a couple hours. These methods are from reading lots of posts on this forum from folks who really know what they are doing - something to try maybe? YMMV but it definitely improved my cooks.
