What did I do wrong?


 
P

Paulie

New member
Hey guys,

I've done about about six cooks on my 22.5 WSM. Meatloaf, ABTS, Mac and cheese, Cornish Hens, pork butt, chicken breasts etc. Everything always turns out good and in the time frame expected, except for this weekend, I did three whole chickens on the bottom rack(each chicken was over 6 lbs) and a ton of ABTS on the top rack. I propped the chickens together in the middle of the rack, touching each other. After three hours at 300 (verified with two thermometers) the chickens were only at 120-130. The ABTS weren't nearly done after two hours, and usually only take about 1.5 hours. I was anticipating everything being done in three hours, but not even close. Had to finish in the oven.

What do you guys think the culprit was? I'm thinking the 18lb of chicken, plus the airflow probably wasn't the best. Just needed more time? Thanks guys, I'd love to hear your opinions!
 
Paulie,with the birds touching each other,it created a greater mass for the heat to get into AND acted as a big heat sink to not let the ABTs cook. Spread them out next time and they'll cook better and let more heat up to the top rack. HTH
 
Where are you taking the temperature reading? You can have a very large differential between a reading at the vent and what your actual temp is in the cooking zone.
 
Thanks guys! Bob-I took the temp reading through the silicon plug on the WSM body, so it was in the cooking zone. I took readings on both top and bottom grates and it averaged about 300.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top