First Smoke on my 22.5 WSM Port-a-Pit Chicken


 
K

Kevin-IN

New member
Fired up my new WSM 22.5 today for the first time since receiving it Monday. Thanks to all of you on these boards, i got a lot of very useful information by reading these threads, which was particularly helpful since i have never cooked with charcoal before.

Being originally from Northern Indiana, one of the staples there is Port-a-Pit chicken. Nelsons is the company that makes it up there. Their smoking pits continually baste the chicken in a butter mixture throughout the smoking process and the final product is this incredibly smokey and flavorful chicken that is an amazing experience. When I moved to Indianapolis i found that nobody here has heard of it. So i did some research and did my best to imitate this awesome bird.

I did 2 half chickens and 6 drumsticks. marinaded them overnight in the butter mixture. removed them about an hour or so before putting them on the cooker and re-boiled the butter mixture. Put the butter mixture on the cooking grate along with all the chicken pieces. Every 10-15 minutes i gave each piece a bath in the butter mixture. This probably elongated the cooking time, but in order to replicate port-a-pit, it was necessary...and i tried to do this step as quickly as possible. The chicken turned out great, the drumsticks on the half chickens were right on point with the port-a-pit flavor I was looking for....sorry for the length of this post
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Hi,
Your chicken looks fantastic. I live down in North Carolina and we use a dip for chicken sort of like you describe may i ask the cook what is in his recipe? This is the one we use:

2 lemons cut in half
1 Quart White House Cider Vinegar
1 Quart Water
1/2 cup Butter (1 stick)
1 tablespoon Black Pepper
Salt to Taste

Bring to a Boil in a Pot with a Lid

This recipe which is used by most in this region of the country is printed in a book called Holy Smoke. I have not tried it yet since like you i have only had the WSM about a week. That is great looking bird though.
 
Originally posted by JTodd:
Hi,
Your chicken looks fantastic. I live down in North Carolina and we use a dip for chicken sort of like you describe may i ask the cook what is in his recipe? This is the one we use:

2 lemons cut in half
1 Quart White House Cider Vinegar
1 Quart Water
1/2 cup Butter (1 stick)
1 tablespoon Black Pepper
Salt to Taste

Bring to a Boil in a Pot with a Lid

This recipe which is used my most in this region of the country is printed in a book called Holy Smoke. I have not tried it yet since like you i have only had the WSM about a week. That is great looking bird though.
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that recipe is similar to the one i used....ours was:

1C water
1C white vinegar
1 lb. butter
4T Kosher Salt
4T Woechestershire Sauce
1T Pepper
1T Onion powder
1T Garlic Powder

for my batch i doubled the recipe since i was doing a lot of chicken....
 
Kevin, those look awesome!!
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Great job.

How long did you cook it before it was done?

Looks really good.
 
Originally posted by Craig Cole:
I need to try this chicken. Very tasty looking. GOod Job.
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the key is to give the chicken a bath every 10-15 minutes in the butter mixture....it extends cooking time a bit, but it's worth it
 
kevin this looks awesome can u give more details as far as temps and cooking times? and a step by step recipe so i can try it? I know nothing of cooking chicken on wsm sadly enough
 
Thanks for the post! I grew up around Ft. Wayne, IN and can remember getting port-a-pit chicken at fairs and fund raisers. My WSM in new to me as well, I can't wait to try to replicate the recipe you posted!
 
Originally posted by Michael Cowley:
kevin this looks awesome can u give more details as far as temps and cooking times? and a step by step recipe so i can try it? I know nothing of cooking chicken on wsm sadly enough
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cooking temp for the cook started at about 225 and got up as high as about 260, but mostly stayed in the 240 range. the drumsticks were done after about 2 hours and the half chickens were done at about the 3.5 hour mark

the standard recipe for the basting liquid is:

1C Water
1C white vinegar
1 lb. butter
4T woeschestershire sauce
4T kosher salt
1T black pepper
1T onion powder
1T garlic powder

I doubled that recipe. I put all the ingredients in a large pot and brought it to a boil, then turned the heat down and simmered for about 20-30 minutes. then removed from heat and let it cool, which took a while. once cooled i then put all the chicken pieces into the pot and let it all sit together, covered, in the fridge overnight. about 1.5 hours before i wanted to start cooking the chicken, i took all the pieces out of the pot and placed them on a large serving plate. i then re-boiled the liquid in the pot and once that was done simmering for about 30 minutes, i let it cool for like 30 more minutes before pouring into the foil pan you see in the photos. then i started the cook. you gotta baste the chicken every 10 minutes during the cook, which elongated the cooking time, but the end result was very much worth it....
 
There is a town not far from here that serves port-a-pit chicken every year as a fair/fund raiser. Oh my goodness! The whole town smells like BBQ chicken for a day and a half! Absolutely amazing when you open up the door of the truck to get out! DROOL!
 
That is some excellent chicken. I may try this with beer can chicken. Would there be a problem with substituting beer for the 1 cup vinegar and 1 cup water?
 
Originally posted by Brian Zimmerman:
That is some excellent chicken. I may try this with beer can chicken. Would there be a problem with substituting beer for the 1 cup vinegar and 1 cup water?
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not sure about the substitution....i can tell you, though, that half chickens are the way to go for this chicken for some reason....i tried it previously with a whole chicken and the results weren't as good....plus it was more challenging to give the whole chicken a bath in the butter mixture....i also used a different smoker for the whole chicken
 
i then re-boiled the liquid in the pot and once that was done simmering for about 30 minutes, i let it cool for like 30 more minutes before pouring into the foil pan you see in the photos. then i started the cook. you gotta baste the chicken every 10 minutes during the cook, which elongated the cooking time, but the end result was very much worth it....
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Is this OK from a food safety standpoint? Does reboiling liquid that touched raw chicken make it OK to use to base?
 
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