I wanted to post my first experience with my WSM, I was given a 22.5" for an early Father's Day present (4.5 month old son and an awesome wife who bought it) so it's my first child and my first smoker! Picked up some RO, chimney starter, chicken and some spare ribs....I was super excited to get started so I left work early yesterday.
Filled up the chamber and got things going with the minion method and no water in the pan. The temp quickly got to 225 it was a little windy here yesterday so I stated closing vents and got the lid thermometer to hold at 225 (waiting for my maverick). Put the meat on and watched the thing like a hawk waiting for the temp to go up or down...not much fiddling with the bottom vents and the temp held pretty steady from 230-245.
I checked the chicken at 2 hours and it was at 140 then again every hour after that till the temp was 165. The spare ribs were on for the same amount of time so they were a little overdone but they tasted great! The chicken on the other hand was very moist but the rub I put on didn't really enhance the flavor of the hickory smoke I used.
All in all it was great to try it out and I can say I'm hooked for life. Thanks to everyone on the site for helping me decide on the 22.5" and what I needed to get started! I will post pictures soon....
Filled up the chamber and got things going with the minion method and no water in the pan. The temp quickly got to 225 it was a little windy here yesterday so I stated closing vents and got the lid thermometer to hold at 225 (waiting for my maverick). Put the meat on and watched the thing like a hawk waiting for the temp to go up or down...not much fiddling with the bottom vents and the temp held pretty steady from 230-245.
I checked the chicken at 2 hours and it was at 140 then again every hour after that till the temp was 165. The spare ribs were on for the same amount of time so they were a little overdone but they tasted great! The chicken on the other hand was very moist but the rub I put on didn't really enhance the flavor of the hickory smoke I used.
All in all it was great to try it out and I can say I'm hooked for life. Thanks to everyone on the site for helping me decide on the 22.5" and what I needed to get started! I will post pictures soon....
