Smoking ribs and chicken - how should I do it?

[Martin S]

OK - here's the deal...

I'm planning on smoking some ribs and chicken, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to get this done since they take different times to finish.

On top of that, I'm doing a rack of really thick baby backs, and a relatively thin rack of spares.

On the WSM, most of the smoke is generated at the beginning. The way I see it, I have two choices:
1) Put the ribs on at the same time, pull the spares early. The chicken would go on with two hours left.
2) Put the baby backs on first, followed by the spares about an hour later, and finally the chicken with about two hours to go.

Either way, the chicken probably won't have a ton of smoke flavor, but that's probably OK. What does everyone think? Go with #1 or #2, or is there a better way to skin a cat than what I'm thinking about.

 

[Stuart S]

I won't have my first WSM until tonight so forgive the question, but is there any reason you can't add more wood later in the cook to get more smoke when you need it? I would lean more towards staging everything to come off at the same time vs. pulling things and holding them until the longest part of the cook is done...

 

[Christos Savva]

Hi Martin
Are you talking about a whole chicken? I have been doing spare ribs and whole chickens together and I always put them on at the same time and cook for 5 hours at 225 F on my 18 WSM with water in the pan. The chicken is moist and the ribs are also great (in my opinion). I do a minion with 3-4 chunks of apple and thats it. Easy as cake.

 

[Martin S]

Hmmm - I would have thought that the chicken would be way overcooked after 5 hours. Interesting...

Stuart: The reason for "no extra wood" is to not over-smoke the ribs, but one additional chunk probably wouldn't hurt anything. Maybe I'll pull the spares early, wrap them in foil, and keep them in a 180 degree oven until it's time to eat.

 

[Stuart S]

Originally posted by Martin S:
Hmmm - I would have thought that the chicken would be way overcooked after 5 hours. Interesting...

Stuart: The reason for "no extra wood" is to not over-smoke the ribs, but one additional chunk probably wouldn't hurt anything. Maybe I'll pull the spares early, wrap them in foil, and keep them in a 180 degree oven until it's time to eat.

I didn't know you could over-smoke ribs...I've done them on my kettle with the smokenator for 6.5 hours with smoke going the whole time and they tasted great. Thanks for the info.

 

[James Harvey]

Did this a few weeks ago (not with differing size ribs though). 2 BB racks and 2 whole chickens.

Ribs on for 5ish hours or until done around 225F. Put the skinnies on an hour later than the fatties.
Off and foiled in a cooler, oven or microwave wrapped in a towel.

Chicken on with a few new chunks of wood (easy as it gets oversmoked quickly).
Crank the WSM up to 350-375F.
Hour to 90 minutes later you have perfect chicken with crispy skin (unlike low & slow rubbery skin).

Chicken rests for 15 minutes. Ribs out and sliced. Everybody's happy.

Voila !

 

[Martin S]

Originally posted by James Harvey:
Did this a few weeks ago (not with differing size ribs though). 2 BB racks and 2 whole chickens.

Ribs on for 5ish hours or until done around 225F. Put the skinnies on an hour later than the fatties.
Off and foiled in a cooler, oven or microwave wrapped in a towel.

Chicken on with a few new chunks of wood (easy as it gets oversmoked quickly).
Crank the WSM up to 350-375F.
Hour to 90 minutes later you have perfect chicken with crispy skin (unlike low & slow rubbery skin).

Chicken rests for 15 minutes. Ribs out and sliced. Everybody's happy.

Voila !

Ah - so you finished the ribs completely before doing the chicken? Interesting...

One thing I might do is slap the chickens on the rotisserie in the Genesis - forgo smoking altogether...

 

[James Harvey]

And you could just do the ribs in the oven

But seriously, the ribs will hold. You can pull them 30 minutes earlier than you would if that makes you feel better but I've held ribs for 2hrs with no major issues.

If you do the chicken on the rotisserie, you can always add a foil smoker bag of wood chips for the smoke flavour. I used to get 1hr of smoke per foil pack which should be more than enough for chicken depending on the wood you use.

Best advice ever is, don't stress over BBQ. You're usually your own biggest critic.

 

[Chris E]

Whatever way you do it, try to open the WSM as few times as possible. I found my cook times go way up when I have mixed meet and open/close the WSM adding and checking meat.

I put 3 racks of ribs under the chicken and let the chicken baste the ribs for a couple hours at 230-ish and pulled the chix. Then I finished the ribs on the top rack so I could spritz and glaze them easier. Used similar rubs but no sugar in the chicken. If I had distinct rubs on the chicken and ribs the chicken drippings/rub would flavor the ribs.

The one time I tried to add the chicken later, I was opening the lid every thirty minutes the last couple hours to spritz the ribs and glaze them. I had to finish the chicken in the oven because I had let too much heat out with all the opening.

I found I prefer chicken spatched or halved on the kettle so now I fire up the wsm and the kettle.

 

[James Harvey]

I really wouldn't suggest placing the chicken on top of other meats (other than more chicken) and I wouldn't suggest using raw/semi raw chicken juices to baste meat below. The potential for cross contamination may be slim but why take the chance especially when cooking at low temps?

 

[Jeff Davidson]

I'd aim for pulling everything off at the same time.

If cooking at 250:
- spares first (est cooking time 6.5 hours)
- wait two hours, add baby backs and chicken (est cooking time 4.5 hours)

I'd add a chunk of wood when the bb and the chicken goes on and put the chicken and bb on the bottom. (roll the bbs). I think that's safer from a health point of view.

 

[Mike A.]

Ribs & chix is one of my favorite combos.

I finish the ribs, park them in the oven to hold, then crank the WSM up to 350 to cook the chix for an hour (w/ a chunk of cherry thrown on the fire).

The ribs are great, the chix are crispy (w/ the right amount of smoke), and it doesn't take much more time. Good luck!

 

[Dave Russell]

The way I do it on my 18.5" wsm is to smoke the chicken when I wrap the ribs and cook til almost done in the oven. After that, you can finish and/or glaze the ribs on a kettle if desired.