Pork butt and chicken


 
R

russell swift

TVWBB Super Fan
Well, the big day is almost here....on Saturday, I'm cooking 2 7lb pork butts and 4 whole chickens for a wedding shower. I appreciate all the help that I've received from the various topics that I've posted to date. Will definitely let everyone know how this turns out on Sunday.

The plan as it stands:
10:00PM Butts go on (assuming 2 hrs per lb)
10:00AM Chickens go on
12:00PM Butts done cooking (foil/cooler)
2:00PM Chickens done cooking
3:00PM Serving time

Anyone have any last minute tips/preparation for me? Any experiences that you'd do differently now that you know w/ chicken and pork butts?

Thanks for all your help!
 
Your plan looks solid but you might want to reconsider the Butt time. Your temps are going to take a huge hit when you putt the chicken in. 2 7lb Butts i would probably figure on 16 hrs or a little more just to be on the safe side. Getting done early is no big deal however running late is. JMO
 
The thing that gets me is bringing the cooker to a ready state...always seems to take longer than anticipated. Then again, I usually let my cooker get to nearly 200 before putting the meat on, a debatable practice I admit.

you didn't mention temperatures...you can start ramping the temperature up on the butts (say from 240 dome to 260 or 270 dome) to help them along prior to putting the chicken on, say start increasing temp about 8:00a or so. Chickens will be fine cooking at the hotter temps.
 
I realize that I might have a spike in the temps when I put the chickens on Saturday morning. I really don't think we are going to eat until 4 or 5pm, so if the pork needs 16 hrs, then that is acceptable. Plan on cooking around the 225-250 degree range (dome temp will be 10 degrees higher) for as long as it will hold up. Will definitely "stir the pot around" about 8am so the smoker will be running hot when the chickens go on.

Do ya'll think I will lose a significant amount of heat when I dissassemble the smoker to place the chickens on the bottom grate? I'm gonna try to do that as fast as possible.

The pork can sit in the cooler for as long as need be....the shower is at our lake house, and I already have a feeling that our guests will be entertained with the boat (which gives me some leeway concerning dinner time).

I'm gonna sauce each chicken with a different BBQ sauce with about 30-45 min left:
#1 Big Bob Gibson's White Sauce
#2 Carolina Treet SC Style
#3 Bone Suckin' Sauce Hot
#4 Sweet Baby Ray's
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Posted June 08, 2005 12:16 PM
you didn't mention temperatures...you can start ramping the temperature up on the butts (say from 240 dome to 260 or 270 dome) to help them along prior to putting the chicken on, say start increasing temp about 8:00a or so. Chickens will be fine cooking at the hotter temps. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Here' my opinion on cooking Butts at a higher temp. Think of New Years Day and the pork Roast/Butt in the oven being cooked at 325 - 350. When it's done there is still a massive amount of fat and conective tissue left in it cause of the higher cooking temp which gets the meat done quicker and doesn't break down the fat and conective tissue. Pork done this way is nowhere near as moist and juicy as the low and slow method. When the Butt is done at 225 degrees low and slow on the WSM and you go to pull it there's hardly anything left on there so i don't recommed doing it at a higher temp. Of course this is JMO, YMMV
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Posted June 08, 2005 12:36 PM
Dome temps are usually 10-20 degrees lower than base temps, correct? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
The lid temp is about 10 - 15 degrees higher than the top grate temp.
Here's how i do the adding part. Get something for the top grate that has the butts on to sit on as close to the height of the WSM as possible. I have insulated rubber gloves that i got from Texas BBQ Rub for $10.00 and they are great. So i would get everything ready to go and put my gloves on so here goes.
1) take lid off and place on the ground
2) remove top grate that has butts on and place on table or something that sits up high (you'll have probes and wires in the Butts) so you only want to move it a foot or two.
3) have somebody standing there (my wife or stepdaughter would be involved here) with the 4 chickens on a cookie sheet or cutting board and grab one in each hand (using the cavity as a good grasp point) and place them, on the lower rack.
4) place top grate back on
5) replace lid.
should only take 20 - 30 seconds to do this.
HTH
 
Also i would figure 16 hrs min and maybe up to 20 hrs for the cook. When you add those 4 cold chickens it's really going to knock the temp down in the WSM. But while you have it open adding said chicken it will get the fire going pretty good in there so remember to give it time to recover after taking lid off and adding the chicken. I would say to open the bottom vents the whole way about 5 - 10 min before adding chicken to help keep the temps up.
 
Bryan is right on. Longer cook times on the butts make a moist product. The quicker cooks that I have done are on the dry side. I would start the butts earlier because just like you said Russell, you can hold them in a cooler for several hours. Then you can crank the heat up for your chicken.
 
I would wonder about getting 4 chickens on the bottom rack. That is unless they are small ones.
If you get them on I think your four sauces might all mix. Maybe you could smoke butts before and then reheat. Smoke chickens day of your event.
 
This is very good information fellas!! Asking well ahead of time b/c I won't have Internet access, and if I run into a problem....I'll have to do the troubleshooting manually.

We will be traveling about two hrs away from home, so both the pork and chicken have to be cooked on the same WSM together. Can't cook one ahead of time due to my work schedule. I will now readjust my cook time to start at 9pm, with an hour of prep time/firing up the charcoal around 8pm. Will pencil in 16 hrs from 9pm Friday night to 1pm Saturday...with a 2 hr rest. Will still put the chickens on around 10am, giving them extra time to cook by themselves if needed...once the pork registers 195F it comes off!

If all goes according to plan, I will hit the 160F plateau sometime Sat morning before the chickens go on. By biggest fear is to disassemble the WSM while this temp is flatlining.
 
Would four 3 lb chickens not fit on the bottom rack? I'm gonna butterfly them, and had planned on arranging them in a pinwheel fashion.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by russell swift:
Would four 3 lb chickens not fit on the bottom rack? I'm gonna butterfly them, and had planned on arranging them in a pinwheel fashion. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
4 Butterflied don't think so. Maybe 3 but i think you might have to use soup cans or such to prop them up to get them to fit and put the 4th one on the top rack, not sure though. When you butterlfy them you just turned the space needed from 4 chickens into 8. Thats alot of room needed.
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