First Cook on New WSM


 
G

Gene_N

TVWBB Fan
To honor my late father who spent countless hours in the backyard grilling on his trusty PK, I've decided to smoke 2 racks of chicken thighs using his simple rub (salt & pepper). I will follow the TVWB Buffalo Wing Recipe to christen my new WSM and then finish the thighs off in my Genesis.

I will smoke two small chunks of cherry for 2.5 hours. I'm sure Dad would say I'm crazy smoking chicken pieces but this is to get me comfortable when I smoke 12 lbs of Boston Butt this weekend.

I appreciate any suggestions. My main concern is making sure I don't dry out or over smoke the thighs (I think) :confused: Since, I plan to smoke for 2.5 hours, can I get away with using a half filled or less charcoal ring? How many briquettes is that?

Thanks... :)
 
bop the skin off the thighs, use a filleting knife and scrape the fat off the skin, put it back on, if you want it real pretty looking use turkey lacers to hold it all together. put them in a pan with either butter in the bottom LOTS of butter or use chicken stalk instead, smoke at 225 till they are done. USE a interal thermometer dark meat is ok at 185 but safe at 165
 
Stay light with the cherry wood. It can turn your chicken real dark!! Those PK Grills last as long or longer than Webers!!
 
If you are only going to use 2 chunks of wood, don't worry about over smoking. Smoke to temp, then if you want, throw on grill at high temp to crisp up the skin.
 
Sounds like a great first cook! Don't be alarmed when smoke starts coming out where you don't expect it, they take a few cooks to get "seasoned" and a little more airtight.

I can't really speak to doing thighs (wish I could but my wife hates them), but my favorite chicken cook in the WSM is wings: full chimney of lit on top of another chimney of unlit, no water pan, and everything on the top rack. This should get you around 350 degrees, which makes amazing smoked wings that rival the best fried for crispiness.
 
I just finished my first cook of 6 lbs of chicken thighs. I have lots of lessons learned.

20 mins to light chimney, assembled with 6L of water. Outside temp was 88F, sunny with light breeze.

I planned to smoke for 2 hours but I cut it to 90 mins because a single chimney of Kingsford Competition could not stay above 200F. I put the meat on at 280F with the bottom vents shut. It went down to 210F 15 mins later. I opened the vents halfway then wide open the first hour but it started to die out, internal meat temp when I stopped was 143-145F. I did not add any fuel. I ended up crisping and finishing the meat on the Genesis, 12 mins, internal temp 178-180.

I rested the meat for 15 mins. It was tender, good crisp on the skin and I tasted the smoke flavor. Good results. It was a lot of work for such a small amount of meat. Next time I will double the fuel. Question, can you do the Minion method with 2 chimneys of briquettes? I also need more table space and 2 more 1/2 sheet pans.

It did not taste like my Dad's cooking but he would have approved if he tried it. I took snap shots. I will post later.

Tomorrow is 13 lbs of Boston Butt with cherry and applewood chunks. The ring will be full very full. 2nd question: For planning purposes on pork, is it 1hr/lb of cook time? I was surprised I could not get more heat from the Kingsford Comp briquettes.
 
My WSM is smaller, but that much meat and water is a lot of mass to heat so the temperature drop makes sense. Think of the heat required to melt a block of ice versus a cube. If you poke around in these forum sections, you'll find a lot of information about different ways to run yours. I'm a proponent of not using water (I have a foil wrapped clay saucer inside the bowl) in the pan unless I'm cold smoking, which might be a big help to you since it will take a large variable out of the equation. A single chimney of lit coals should be plenty of fuel for even a high heat Minion start.

It's hard to answer your pork question without knowing what temperature you're planning on. I typically do mine at higher heat, like 275-325, so it doesn't take that much time. If you have time before your cook, get that big lump of pork out to warm up a little.
 
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Minion Method is a small batch of starter coals to slowly fuel a mass of unlit. Adding 2 chimneys negates the method. For a long, low cook, pack the ring as full as you can and start with less than a half chimney of lit. If you use water, assume it will take a while to get to a stable temp (per the above, I run dry). One key thing to keep in mind, it's easier to control temps going up than to try and tame them down. Too much lit up front can give you a temp spike that may not drop for hours. This is why less lit to start is moe.

Good luck !
 
+1 on the higher heat from chicken. Even though your temps were 280 when you put the chicken on, that much meat will drop the temp. You had the vents shut already so that dropped it even quicker. If you do minion it would have had enough fuel to come back.

When I do chicken I put in 3/4 ring of unlit and 1 full lit chimney of kingsford. I add the chicken immediatley and cook with all vents open. The temp ususally levels around 250-260. I'll put a stick under the lid to crack it open and raise the temp to 325.

Your dad would be proud becuase you're out there putting your "smoke on" for family and friends, no matter how it comes out.
 
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