How many whole chickens?


 
Dave Z

Dave Z

New member
I am having a large party at my place and want to cook multiple whole chickens. I will probably rig up an extra shelf between the top and bottom shelves to give me another rack. I have a WSM 22.5.

I am thinking I can get at least 12 chickens in there and I will monitor temp of the chickens during the cook and before I pull them. I might be able to get 15 if I used beer cans?

I am also thinking about running it "hot" rather than going low and slow.

Any advice on doing this? Any one else done it? Any things to watch for?

Any ideas on how long 12-15 chickens would take?

Many thanks!!

DZ
 
I've never done that many but I did 8 this weekend. I usually go at 275 for 3 or 4 hrs depending on how many I'm cooking and the sizes.
 
Dave, I have a 3rd shelf between the top and bottom rack on both my 18.5 and 22.5 WSM's. I have not tried it, but I am not sure if a whole chicken will fit - the height of the whole chicken is the problem. The 3rd rack works great for ribs, wings, chicken pieces, etc. Just measure and do the math before going that route.
 
Thanks folks. Will stick with Chicken and let you know how I get on. May not have to do as many as I thought but will let you know. Thanks!
 
whenever I read posts about "large parties" I wonder what is the need to smoke the chicken (or pork or whatever) during the the actual party. Figure out how many you need to feed the crowd (lets say you decide on 14 for argument sake). I would smoke 7-8 of them which would easily fit, then in a separate batch the remaining chickens. I would do it the day before the party. Then you can shred them that day, put in fridge. Next day (party day) instead of trying to wrestle with party guests, monitoring 15 chickens, bringing them in the house, pulling them etc you can have it in a huge crock pot ready to be served.

Just my 2 cents. You still impress everyone with your amazing cooking but take the party day stress away

If you are doing pulled chicken I don't think you need to run it hot since the skin doesn't matter IMO unless you just want to speed up the cook time.
 
Keith R said:
whenever I read posts about "large parties" I wonder what is the need to smoke the chicken (or pork or whatever) during the the actual party. Figure out how many you need to feed the crowd (lets say you decide on 14 for argument sake). I would smoke 7-8 of them which would easily fit, then in a separate batch the remaining chickens. I would do it the day before the party. Then you can shred them that day, put in fridge. Next day (party day) instead of trying to wrestle with party guests, monitoring 15 chickens, bringing them in the house, pulling them etc you can have it in a huge crock pot ready to be served.

Just my 2 cents. You still impress everyone with your amazing cooking but take the party day stress away

If you are doing pulled chicken I don't think you need to run it hot since the skin doesn't matter IMO unless you just want to speed up the cook time.
Click to expand...

I don't think Dave is doing pulled chicken, he was referring to pulling the chickens off the smoker. :cool:
 
Umm.. ah... as I re-read it I bet you are right. I just read "pull" and started thinking pulled chicken sandwiches.
 
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