4 butts on an 18.5


 
H

Hamilton Barnes

TVWBB Pro
Y'all I am cooking for my buddy's baby shower on Saturday and plan on doing an all night cook on friday night. I am planing on starting the coals around 7pm so i can cook 4 butts and then take them off and cook 2 chickens. What do yall think I should do? What time line do you recommend?
 
I'd plan on 1.5 hrs per lb for the butts and then throw the chickens on. So for an 8lb butt, you'll have 12-hrs of cooking time. What timeis the party & what type of chicken are you doing (whole, thighs, legs, etc).
 
I've done 4 butts many times on my 18.5 and had great successes. Recently I've gone over to high heat which take abut 6 - 7 hours rather than 14-16. If you're going over night, allow that time - 14 to 16 hours, and don't worry because you can pull them and then they can stay wrapped in a cooler for a very long time. If you're butts come off at 1 pm you can let them rest till 4 pm, put them in a 175 oven, and in the meantime your birds are cooking. Good luck and enjoy.

Cheers,

Michael
 
Nothing wrong with finishing the butts in the oven if necessary too, in case you need to get the chickens on and the butts aren't done. Just chuck them in a couple disposable foil pans and set the oven to whatever temp you had your smoker at. By the end of the cook they're not picking up much in the way of smoke flavor, the coals are just providing heat. You can do that indoors just as well.

I finish all my home cooks in the oven because I like sleep. Meat gets 4-6 hours in the smoke to set the bark, then it comes inside. Added bonus, I dream of tasty BBQ because the whole house smells delicious. :)
 
At 250 I'd figure no less than 12 hours, so fire up at 7 PM, put 'em on by 8 and you should be good to go by 9 or 10 easily the following morning. When you get up check and see where they are and you can always raise your cooking temp if necessary so they'll be done on time. And like Canada Mike stated, they'll hold for hours wrapped up in a cooler. Good luck with your party!
 
I have a 18.5" too. I haven't done 4 butts at once yet, last butt cook I did was 2. I had a 6 & 5lbs butt and it took about 10-10.5hrs. I got up at 4am to get the smoker started(couldn't sleep. Dreaming about pork butt). temps 225-250 pulled butts off @193IT. They were done about 2-3hrs before dinner, so I wrapped them in foil, put a towel in a cooler, put the butts in, covered with the towel, and they were still nice and warm 3-4hrs later.
 
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