Bruce Bissonnette
TVWBB Guru
First off, here is the link to the photos of the cook:
Chicken Cook
This will probably be fairly long, and I will try to anticipate your questions as i go and hopefully answer them along the way.
I had marinated the thighs and legs in Wishbone Zesty Italian overnight. I drained the dressing from the ziplock bags and paper toweled the chicken pieces. I made a rub consisting of Texas BBQ Rub #1 and #2, in a 2:1 ratio. I sprinkled the rub onto the chicken pieces let them sit on the counter while I got the WSM fired up.
I used 3 chunks of Sugar maple and 1 chunk of Pecan. I loaded the charcoal ring 3/4 full with Kingsford and lit a half chimney full and added them to the ring when they wewre ashed over. I used Kingsford instead of lump because I had never done this before and I value my lump so I figured the Kingsford is cheaper and I've never really had aproblem with it, anyhow...
I transferred the chicken pieces to the grates and assembled the cooker. I placed thighs on the most bottom rack, then legs, then legs on the lower top grate and then thighs on the highest grate. Don't know why, just thought the thighs looked bigger and I thought the heat nearer the sand pan and closer to the dome would be higher than the middle. I took notes on the temps and vent settings:
Time Lid Top Grate #1 Middle(btw. 2 & 3)
12:50p ON Vent 1 Vent 2 Vent 3
1:10p 218 210 176
1:35p 245 100 221 0 183 50
2:20p 239 100 221 100 217 100
2:50p 258 50 228 50 224 50
3:20p 255 50 248 25 237 25
3:50p 260 0 251 0 235 50
I started taking temps of the meat at 3pm, they were interesting to say the least. Temps on Rack 4, closest to the sand, were actually higher then temps on the top grate by 5-10 degrees.The top rack meat ranged from 161-170 and the lower rack meat ranged from 170-175. Middle rack, #2 and #3, ranged from from 160-172.
I received some interesting info last night from a member of the BBQ Forum who had done multi-level cooks on his WSM. He stated that air circulation can be impeded with multiple levels, he had found that meat temps closer to the sand were in fact higher and meat on the middle grates and that meat located in the middle of the grate did not cook as fast and might require rotation.
At 3:50pm the wife asked if we were having any for dinner and I told her that we sure were, so I lit up some lump in the Weber kettle and began to crips up some chicken. I did a plate full for dinner, then decided I might as well do it all, so I pulled the chicken from the WSM about 10 pieces at a time and finished it off on the kettle.
It did get a little dark on the kettle, that was a hot fire, but the skin tasted great, nice and crisp with great flavor.
Lets see what's left, Had a great time during the cook, the WSM performed well, I was surprised that after nearly 4 hours there were still some pieces that had not reached 175 degrees. It was kind of a pain trying to check temps on the lower grates, make sure you have a place to set the upper grates down. Can't think of anything else right now, if you have any questions feel free to post or my e-mail address is on my profile.
Chicken Cook
This will probably be fairly long, and I will try to anticipate your questions as i go and hopefully answer them along the way.
I had marinated the thighs and legs in Wishbone Zesty Italian overnight. I drained the dressing from the ziplock bags and paper toweled the chicken pieces. I made a rub consisting of Texas BBQ Rub #1 and #2, in a 2:1 ratio. I sprinkled the rub onto the chicken pieces let them sit on the counter while I got the WSM fired up.
I used 3 chunks of Sugar maple and 1 chunk of Pecan. I loaded the charcoal ring 3/4 full with Kingsford and lit a half chimney full and added them to the ring when they wewre ashed over. I used Kingsford instead of lump because I had never done this before and I value my lump so I figured the Kingsford is cheaper and I've never really had aproblem with it, anyhow...
I transferred the chicken pieces to the grates and assembled the cooker. I placed thighs on the most bottom rack, then legs, then legs on the lower top grate and then thighs on the highest grate. Don't know why, just thought the thighs looked bigger and I thought the heat nearer the sand pan and closer to the dome would be higher than the middle. I took notes on the temps and vent settings:
Time Lid Top Grate #1 Middle(btw. 2 & 3)
12:50p ON Vent 1 Vent 2 Vent 3
1:10p 218 210 176
1:35p 245 100 221 0 183 50
2:20p 239 100 221 100 217 100
2:50p 258 50 228 50 224 50
3:20p 255 50 248 25 237 25
3:50p 260 0 251 0 235 50
I started taking temps of the meat at 3pm, they were interesting to say the least. Temps on Rack 4, closest to the sand, were actually higher then temps on the top grate by 5-10 degrees.The top rack meat ranged from 161-170 and the lower rack meat ranged from 170-175. Middle rack, #2 and #3, ranged from from 160-172.
I received some interesting info last night from a member of the BBQ Forum who had done multi-level cooks on his WSM. He stated that air circulation can be impeded with multiple levels, he had found that meat temps closer to the sand were in fact higher and meat on the middle grates and that meat located in the middle of the grate did not cook as fast and might require rotation.
At 3:50pm the wife asked if we were having any for dinner and I told her that we sure were, so I lit up some lump in the Weber kettle and began to crips up some chicken. I did a plate full for dinner, then decided I might as well do it all, so I pulled the chicken from the WSM about 10 pieces at a time and finished it off on the kettle.
It did get a little dark on the kettle, that was a hot fire, but the skin tasted great, nice and crisp with great flavor.
Lets see what's left, Had a great time during the cook, the WSM performed well, I was surprised that after nearly 4 hours there were still some pieces that had not reached 175 degrees. It was kind of a pain trying to check temps on the lower grates, make sure you have a place to set the upper grates down. Can't think of anything else right now, if you have any questions feel free to post or my e-mail address is on my profile.
