Fired up the WSM for the first time on Valentines day. Didn't get a chance to pick up a pork butt, so went with a whole chicken I had.
Prep:
- Split the chicken in half and removed the back bone.
- Rubbed it down with some Costco BBQ rub I had laying around.
- Let the chicken sit out while I prepped the WSM
- One chimney full of Kingsford Blue, unlit
- One chimney of Stubbs Briquettes, unlit
- 1/2 chimney of Stubbs lit in the chimney until they were are grey
- 3 chunks of apple wood
Cook:
- Dumped in the lit coals and left all the vents wide open, temp slowly ran up to 200
- Opened the door to try and speed up firing up more coals
- Got the cooker to 225 and threw on the chicken
- Temp never climbed above 225, probably needed more charcoal
- Last hour the temp dropped to 200, so the last 5 degrees on the chicken took around an hour
- 4 hours total of cook time
Results:
- Skin was crispy, juices were trapped beneath the skin, sort of like the whole bird was a blister
- Tender, juicy meat, the wife really liked it
- Didn't use any sauce
- Added the leftovers to some homemade mac n'cheese yesterday, worked out really well
Next Time:
- More charcoal, 2/3 of the coals were burnt up at the end of 4 hours, plus I couldn't get the temp to rise above 225 (confirmed built-in thermometer with another thermometer)
- Ordered a Maverick ET-733, was borrowing a friends William Sonoma thermometer for this cook
Prep:
- Split the chicken in half and removed the back bone.
- Rubbed it down with some Costco BBQ rub I had laying around.
- Let the chicken sit out while I prepped the WSM
- One chimney full of Kingsford Blue, unlit
- One chimney of Stubbs Briquettes, unlit
- 1/2 chimney of Stubbs lit in the chimney until they were are grey
- 3 chunks of apple wood
Cook:
- Dumped in the lit coals and left all the vents wide open, temp slowly ran up to 200
- Opened the door to try and speed up firing up more coals
- Got the cooker to 225 and threw on the chicken
- Temp never climbed above 225, probably needed more charcoal
- Last hour the temp dropped to 200, so the last 5 degrees on the chicken took around an hour
- 4 hours total of cook time
Results:
- Skin was crispy, juices were trapped beneath the skin, sort of like the whole bird was a blister
- Tender, juicy meat, the wife really liked it
- Didn't use any sauce
- Added the leftovers to some homemade mac n'cheese yesterday, worked out really well
Next Time:
- More charcoal, 2/3 of the coals were burnt up at the end of 4 hours, plus I couldn't get the temp to rise above 225 (confirmed built-in thermometer with another thermometer)
- Ordered a Maverick ET-733, was borrowing a friends William Sonoma thermometer for this cook