Tandoori Chicken and Tri tip

[Erik G]

Last night I decided to pull the smoker out of the garage and smoke some tandoori chicken and tri tip. Since I wanted to cook the meats with high heat, I foiled my water pan and did NOT add anything to it.
I have done this many times cooking turkey and tri tip without having any issues getting the temp. to around 400, albeit using Kingsford charcoal.
This time I used Rancher's charcoal and had a hell of a time getting temps. up. I had all four dampers 100% open and could not get the temp. past 300 degrees at the lid. I used one chimney full of unlit charcoal over one chimney full of lit charcoal. After about 20 minutes or so, I decided to remove the water pan all together and see if that would work and it didn't. I was hopeing to get the temp around 500 degrees for the chicken but I failed miserably. The temperature outside was mid to high 60's with very little cloud coverage. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Erik

 

[Russ Hazzon]

Lump is a very different animal than Kingsford and not nearly as consistent. Sometimes you need to crack open the access door to crank up the temps.

 

[Erik G]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Russ Hazzon:
Lump is a very different animal than Kingsford and not nearly as consistent. Sometimes you need to crack open the access door to crank up the temps. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Russ, sorry to confuse you, but I didn't use lump. I used Rancher's charcoal.

Erik

 

[Don Irish]

I’ve had the same experience. IMHO Rancher is great for BBQ, not so much for grilling/ high temp roasting. I use the K or lump for those.

 

[Mike A.]

A good lump should burn as hot or hotter than any briquette. I use Humphrey's, RO, & Wegmans with success.

I've never gotten up to 500 though.

The WSM will do 350-375 pretty easily with a foiled pan in place; tilting the lid gets it to 425-450, enough to give a bird a nice crispy browning.