No poultry on top question

[Bob T.]

I have seen this many times posted here about no poultry on top. I'm going to have to ask a dumb question and say why? Bacteria in the drippings? If this is the case, what about when you do multi layers of chicken in the WSM.

 

[Konrad Haskins]

Multiple layers of chicken is fine. Chicken on the bottom is just a better safe than sorry issue. If everything is gets above 165*f all the germs are dead anyway. Beef and Pork dripping have more flavor than Chicken drippings. Pork over Chicken or Chorken is YUMMY!

 

[Bob T.]

I have done chicken over other items before. When doing a long smoke, I may toss on a Game Hen on the top rack to smoke for lunch while something is on the lower rack smoking for dinner, never any issues. Maybe I have been just lucky up to now.

 

[Morgan Sziraki]

I've had chicken on top after foiling a brisket on the bottom. If the meat on the bottom is going to stay in for a few hours more there probably isnt a problem. I rarely BBQ just for myself, if I did I would take all kinds of risks that I wouldn't do when serving food to friends. I'd hate to get a bad rap, though.

 

[Paul G.]

You'll find a lot of debate on this, but the consensus has been better to be safe than sorry. Clearly it is wise not to put chicken over any meat you're going to cook low/slow. I think the reason is the bacteria from the chicken will be on the other meat for many hours till that meat reaches the 160 point. This could well cause problems. Chicken contaminating chicken doesn't seem to be a problem but it does raise interesting questions. The better way to cook chicken is at a higher heat so if it drips on other chicken it won't be there for a long time till the correct temp is reached. That said, I certainly have loaded the WSM with butterflied chicken halves and cooked low/slow for 5 hrs. It was great and as of today I'm still alive.

Bottom line, Doug D said don't do it and I don't do it.

Paul

 

[Doug D]

Well, there you have it.

What needs to be remembered is that it's the waste the bacteria produce that contain the toxins that cause food-borne illness. If they are given sufficient time to produce them before heat eventually kills them (the bacteria, that is-- heat will not neutralize the toxins), there is still a possibility of contamination. Food safety guidelines say no more than a couple hours between 40 and 140° is safe, so there's a possibility that, in a low & slow cooking environment, you could have a problem. Then again, this could all be much ado about nothing. I choose to err on the side of caution.