First smoke on 22.5 WSM - chicken breast

[Steve C M]

Picked up a new smoker a few days ago. Have plans to smoke 5 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts in morning. Have a few questions? This is an awesome forum but there's so many different ways of smoking and opinions it's difficult to make decisions. I've never used a smoker before.. I just want this first smoke to come out half decent..

1. I have 5 lbs of skinless/boneless breasts soaking in brine. Is it necessary and why do people pat or dry off brine? Any harm in going directly from brine to the grill/smoker?

2. Water in pan or not?

3. About how many briquettes using the minion method?

4. What temp and how long to smoke for? I also bought digital meat thermometer and was planning on using..

5. How many chunks of wood and which flavors. I bought a bag of hickory, apple, pecan, and oak.

I know all this info is on the forum, I'm just looking for some quick reassurance before my first smoke.. After a few smokes of poultry and learning a bit about smoking I want to smoke some venison. I don't want to mess up on our hard earned venison from this year. I shot two in archery and my wife got one in rifle. We have big plans for smokin venison sticks, bologna, jerkey, etc..

Thanks in advance!! This is such a great forum!!

Steve

 

[Khanh Hoang]

1. I have 5 lbs of skinless/boneless breasts soaking in brine. Is it necessary and why do people pat or dry off brine? Any harm in going directly from brine to the grill/smoker? I usually pat dry, then coat with olive oil and then dry rub... I'm sure you can go directly into smoker as it will dry it anyways, but I like the crust the rub on the meat

2. Water in pan or not? Not recommending water in the pan as you will need +300F to cook poultry

3. About how many briquettes using the minion method? I usually go with half a chimney of lit coal as you will need the higher temps

4. What temp and how long to smoke for? I also bought digital meat thermometer and was planning on using.. go to the cooking tips to get the idea, I cook 350F for poultry

5. How many chunks of wood and which flavors. I bought a bag of hickory, apple, pecan, and oak. Poultry absorb smoke like there is no tomorrow, I would not use too much wood.. Apple is good with birds

 

[Curtis M]

1) I like to pat them dry, put a bit of mayonnaise or ranch dressing and then put my rub on.

2) With breast and a brine, water is not necessary. I like cooking chicken at a higher temp and water will only prevent that.

3) I typically will use around 25 briquettes or so dumped into the middle of the charcoal ring. Make a hole big enough for them to fit.

4) Cook until done, around 160 or when the juices run clear. Cooking at 300+ will be a lot like cooking in your over. Try and recall those time frames.

5) I would use a hunk of apple and a hunk of pecan. Those two woods together for chicken is my favorite. Oak and hickory are too strong for chicken.

Have a great cook and post some photos! Good luck!

CM

 

[Paul Pearson]

Cooking boneless skinless opens up your options more since you don't have to worry about the skin being crisp. I have smoked skinless breasts along with ribs before at 250-275 no problem but there isn't really a benefit to low temp cooking with poultry as others have said. I did some bone in pieces for Christmas day and I ran the smoker 350-375 on the lid gauge the whole time.

I have been using either apple or apple cherry mixture for smoke wood with poultry. I usually only use 1 or 1.5 tennis ball size chunks for chicken because I use lump charcoal to get the higher temps.

 

[Steve C M]

Thanks everyone for the tips!! Chicken turned out really good. Not sure how to post pics on here yet.