high temp cooks


 
R

Rick Moore

TVWBB Super Fan
Hello all-

I tried to do a high temp cook on the WSM the other day - with little success. I was basically following Keri's turbo chicken steps - but with much more chicken. Here's the deal:

3 grates in the WSM fully loaded - legs on the bottom, thighs in the middle and brest on top. And I mean fully loaded - probably 12 legs, 10 thighs and 7 breasts - something like that.

I started 2 full chimneys of Kingsford - let them get fully lit and dumped them into the WSM - foil lined water pan - BBQ Delight pellets - all vents open 100% - I assembled the cooker fully loaded already - did not let it preheat at all. But the coals were white hot at this point. Ambient temps were in the mid 30's - probably 5-10 mph wind.

My temps never got over 260. I even loaded it with another 1/2 chimney of hot coals trying to get the temps up. It took over 2 hours to cook the chicken.

The only thing I can think is that there was just too much food on there and maybe there wasn't enough airflow. Anyone else have any ideas where I could have gone wrong??
 
I think your supposition is likely correct. You were fighting a cold cooker, lots of cold chicken, cold ambient temps, all at the outset. Was your chicken so packed in each piece was touching, or nearly so, the other?
 
Yup - all the chicken was close too touching - if not touching. Now, this is like the big ends of the drums were touching, but not the "handles"
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But then above that opening in the handles, you may have had thighs that were touching - and then above that, breasts... Maybe I need to try again soon for a hot cook and not use nearly that much chicken - just to make sure I can get my WSM above 300. An I had a Nu-Temp and a ET-73 probe in there - both within about 2-5 degrees of each other depending upon when you looked at them.

Thanks for your thoughts!
 
Rick,

That's a lot of chicken. Were you feeding a big crowd?

I think Kevin is correct. If the pieces were touching and crowded together, it would restrict the airflow.

Ray
 
You can definitely get your cooker over 300 no problem.

Airflow is pretty critical. If I do a third-grate mod it's to spread out better what I would normally cook on two grates, sometimes plus a little, more but not much.

The other thing. If you're starting out with such a large mass of cold food, the cooker is cold, and it's cold outside, start with more lit fuel--plenty more. With something like chicken you're not going to care if your temps hit 400 or better at the outset. The other thing you can do is to get your coals cranking, assemble the cooker and leave it alone for a few minutes till everything is good and hot, then remove the top and get your food in there quickly. You'll have an immediate temp drop but the WSM's components will have heated which will help you restore your cooking temp more quickly.
 
I'm surprised you couldn't get it higher than that. I did a beer can chicken over the weekend and I was able to keep the temps at 350 for the most part with only 1 chimney of lump on a breezy 35 degree day. It did take some fenageling though. What I did was I made sure the fire was screaming before I put the WSM together. After I put it together I left the front door open until the top vent temps read 375. Then I closed the door. The temps eventually dropped down to the 325 to 360 range. A couple of times the temps went below 300 so I had to open the door till the temps rose back up. In retrospect I should've used more fuel. 2 chimneys would've done me right. You might try some lump next time. I've never been able to keep my temps up with charcoal. I know people here do it all the time but I can't seem to get it going.
 
Bill -- you had a lot less of a thermal load and airflow blocker than Rick did. You are absolutely correct about using lump instead of Kingsford. All of my hi-temp cooks are done with lump, and, as you found out, LOTS of it.

What I do, because I have a charbroil chimney (smaller than the weber) is start one chimney, put it into the ring, put on at least that much more lump, and then start another chimney of lump. I generally have a pretty good fire when I put the second chimney of lump in.
 
Lump's the way to go for high heat--good lump--but I have used Kingsford for high heat successfully; takes more.<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> What I do, because I have a charbroil chimney (smaller than the weber) is start one chimney, put it into the ring, put on at least that much more lump, and then start another chimney of lump. I generally have a pretty good fire when I put the second chimney of lump in. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
A good idea, Vernon. I think the airflow restriction really was the problem for Rick. It's hard to compensate for that no matter what you're using.
 
Today I smoked the godly "brat boats", a recipe that was posted on here a few months ago and I did them sans water pan. I had all bottom vents closed and the WSM did not go below 330 degrees(outside temp 52). I did "preheat" but I only used one chimney full of Steak Master organic bricketts. I do my beer butt chicken this way to with only a drip pan and I have no problem holding high temps.
 
George - doing brats, I have to think that you were getting some small grease flames in there keeping your temps up with no pan in there - maybe not.

I agree with what was my original thought in the post that started this thread and what others have said on here as well - there was just too much chicken and not enough airflow. I had chicken touching, at least in spots, on 3 grates. That is almost 3 levels, full of chicken that was roughly 35 degrees (had been sitting outside - not inside for room temp - with little room to allow for air flow.

I'm going to try cooking chicken again very soon and going for the high temp cook to see if I can do it. But I'm starting to agree with what others have said in other posts, chicken may be best done on the kettle - I have turned out plenty of fine chicken on my kettle - but I was cooking for about 60 people at work - had a whole hog (80#) on my pig cooker and 3 grates of chicken on the WSM - sorry for the coworkers that the chicken wasn't done until after they were full! Oh well, it was gone by 11:00 the next morning...never knew chicken made such a good breakfast food!

Vernon - have to give it up for our Wolfpack! Can't believe we are still in it... Hasn't been this much fun being a Pack fan since I started school there back in '89...
 
Rick, I had the brats nestled on a roasting rack on the top grate with a drip pan directly underneath the rack. Search this forum for the recipe and you will not be disappointed.
 
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