Why am I getting near black chicken skin?


 
The majority of my chicken cooks have been using either half or mostly lump charcoal and I light 2 chimneys full then dump them in the smoker. I only add unlit when doing longer turkey cooks so I don't think it is smoke from the KBB lighting up.

Unfortunately at this time I do not have a kettle, but when ive cooked chicken on my dads kettle I do not remember the skin getting black.

Has anyone had any experience using the Piedmont pan with water on non poultry cooks? I may just build one up and see if it will work for both types of cooks.

Thanks for the ideas so far guys.
 
I've had my WSM for 2 months now and in my first two attempts at fowl (chicken and turkey thighs) they both turned out like that. Both time I cooked with the water pan foiled, but no water. This last time, I removed the pan completely and I got great thighs. I can't swear yet that is the reason. I don't think I did anything else differently, but it worked, so until the next time, I am calling that the reason.
 
Just thought I would give an update on this. I built myself a Piedmont Pan and smoked some wings and pieces over the weekend. Even with using 2.5 chunks of apple/cherry there was no black skin on the chicken.

I still heard sizzling and there was a bit more smoke than water / pork cooks but things came out a nice brown color. Now I just need to figure out how to get crispy skin on all the grates not just the bottom one.

FYI, I used 3 nuts and 2 washers between my pans and the lower grate is sitting on the top pan so I will need to remove 1 nut spacer. I also had to bend the tabs in or the pan could fall down on one side id pushed all the way to one side. I will try to post pictures later.
 
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