First cook with 18.5"


 
Facundo Silva

Facundo Silva

TVWBB Member
Hi,

After years of wanting to get myself a WSM, I finally got one for Christmas. I went to Costco and bought two chicken about 4 pounds each. I bought two Kingsford charcoal blue bags and a bag of Weber apple wood chunks. I was ready to rock and roll. I followed the basic barbecued chicken recipe from the beginner recipe section to the letter. I halved the chickens rinsed them with cold water and used Fette Sau dry rub. I fired the chimney starter and I was impressed with how easy and fast it lighted up. After flames started showing up on top I poured them on the smoker and then I added another 1/2 chimney, waited until they turn gray and tossed 3 apple chunks. I put the chicken on the smoker waited 45 min. Apply BBQ sauce, waited 15 more min and then I proceeded to grill the skin just like the recipe said.

During the cooking process the temps fluctuated quite a bit. At one point it got over 350 which I then proceeded to close the vents and temps went down to 270. The end result was that the chicken didn't turn out as tender as I would have like to. Is this because of the temperature changes or because the relatively short cooking time? I'm trying to figure out how to make it better next time. Chickens at Costco are only $0.99 a pound so I see myself experimenting a lot in the future until I get it right.

Cheers,

Facundo
 
It won't take you too many cooks to master the temp swings. Chicken is a challenge in the WSM. Your natural desire is to cook it low and slow since you're using your WSM, but in reality, chicken is best when cooked hot and fast. Chicken is great to master your WSM skills with. Keep an eye out for Pork Butts, they're often not a whole lot more than your 99 cents a LBS, and they really cook up nice low and slow
 
325o for chicken will work great. Just like cooking chicken in your kitchen oven, at 325 it'll only take an hour (or so) in the WSM. Don't over do it.
 
My first cook on my 18.5 was chicken thighs, no water pan, and kept it to 325-350. The dampers will take some getting used to controlling you temp. Congrats and good luck on the WSM!
 
In my opinion and based on my attempts, WSM works good for chicken ONLY IF WITHOUT WATERPAN. And cooking T round 300F at higher grate.
Wings turned out super with this set up.
I repeted the attempt with the waterpan in and cooking T at 300F. Wings turned out not good!
 
Enrico Brandizzi said:
In my opinion and based on my attempts, WSM works good for chicken ONLY IF WITHOUT WATERPAN. And cooking T round 300F at higher grate.
Wings turned out super with this set up.
I repeted the attempt with the waterpan in and cooking T at 300F. Wings turned out not good!
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Welcome and congratulation on your new WSM! You're going to love it..

New cookers fluctuate a lot so don't worry, just keep cookin! Recently someone in a thread here convinced me to try cooking chicken without the water pan and at high temp. I had excellent results and I agree with Enrico only I would go 350+
 
Agreed...chicken needs to be between 300-350. I'm looking to a "WingFest" with some of my buddies sometime soon to really brake in my 18.5, different marinades and dry rubs...going to add some corn starch in with a favorite rub, good eats right there!
 
I've only used my WSM twice, and the second time was chicken drumsticks. Looking around on the forum, I saw several people recommend no water pan and high heat, as mentioned above.

That's what I did, lid temp was hovering around 300, so I'm guessing grill temp was close to 350. The drumsticks were on for about 50 minutes and came out pretty good for a first try.
 
Thank you guys for all your replies!! I did a second round, cooking chicken quarters this time. I used SYD all purpose rub, 9 pounds of Kingsford blue bag, and the water pan without water. It cooked for 1 hour, I sauced at 45 min. Temps hovered around 350. Result was much better. I will try without a water pan next time and with less charcoal. May be just one full Weber Chimney Starter.
 
Facundo Silva said:
Thank you guys for all your replies!! I did a second round, cooking chicken quarters this time. I used SYD all purpose rub, 9 pounds of Kingsford blue bag, and the water pan without water. It cooked for 1 hour, I sauced at 45 min. Temps hovered around 350. Result was much better. I will try without a water pan next time and with less charcoal. May be just one full Weber Chimney Starter.
Click to expand...

It's all a process, glad you're figuring it out! Smoke on!
 
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