WSM Smoke Weekend 16 and a dedication to my brother


 
Michael Richards

Michael Richards

TVWBB Emerald Member
This is my first Smoke Day/Weekend and I have to share the fact that my first is the 16th is a really cool coincident to me. The number 16 is special to me and my family. I am one of four boys and playing sport we all worn Number 16 or 61. We lost my little brother over ten years ago now and one of my favorite hirelomes is his club soccer shirt. When my son started to play at the same club as my brother did he choose to wear the number 16 also. I told him he did not have to chose 16, but he said it was Uncle Jon's number and he wanted to wear Jon's number. As I started coaching, my late brother's shirt become my game day shirt and a lucky charm. When we decided to get "third jerseys" (or kits for those who know the game) the team choose the same color scheme as my brother's shirt.
My brother used to stop by for dinner on his way home from work and I think he would have loved the food I am making on my WSM.
On top of it being the 16th, today is the first day the the German Bundesliga is back playing live matches so today was the first time my son sat and watched a live game since pre pandemic (the only game is our house is world Football). I just missed my brother today and all this little things make me feel like he is just a little bit with us. This one's for you Bubba!
Now to the cooking, the goal was over night pulled pork, but we had steady rain all last evening into the early morning and I was not going to fight with that, so here is the mortified menu for WSM Smoke Weekend 16.
SATURDAY
I have to keep the Road Side Chicken Wagon going. Going to serve that with pasta salad and beans. And WI throw some fresh charcoal on after the chicken comes off so we can do smores over the bottom section of the WSM.
SUNDAY
Carolina style pulled pork with Hog Heaven BBQ sauce served with corn on the cob and grill foiled potatoes.
MONDAY
Whole smoked chicken, fajitas style with a pan of pepper, onions, and tomatoes also on the smoker to make smoked chicken Quesadillas right over the bottom of the WSM. Question so I put chicken on top and vegs on bottom rack or do it the opposite way?

Here is the first picture of the roadside chicken marinating. More pictures to come today and this weekend. 20200523_161349.jpg
 
Thanks for sharing the story about your brother, Michael. And great to hear the love of football has been passed down through your family. One of my favorite things to do with my dad when I was little was to watch the one Bundesliga game per week that was aired on our local PBS station (he was a big Bayern Munchen fan.) Occasionally, he'd get us tickets to see the NASL 'Quakes, too, which was always great fun for me and my bro. These days I referee local AYSO youth matches from 10U up to 19U, and absolutely love my time on the pitch with the kids.

.....as for the food, the chicken looks great, and the s'mores are the best way to cap of a BBQ meal! Enjoy the rest of your weekend menu, hope we'll see that pork tomorrow!

R
 
A beautiful story, thank you. The chicken looks great; I've only done roadside chicken once but I think it is time to try it again.
 
Reffing was my first job at age 12 and still do it today. Adult Hispanic League runs opposite to my boys schedule. My son turned 12 time last winter so I told him I would help him start to ref the 2nd through
Rich G said:
Thanks for sharing the story about your brother, Michael. And great to hear the love of football has been passed down through your family. One of my favorite things to do with my dad when I was little was to watch the one Bundesliga game per week that was aired on our local PBS station (he was a big Bayern Munchen fan.) Occasionally, he'd get us tickets to see the NASL 'Quakes, too, which was always great fun for me and my bro. These days I referee local AYSO youth matches from 10U up to 19U, and absolutely love my time on the pitch with the kids.

.....as for the food, the chicken looks great, and the s'mores are the best way to cap of a BBQ meal! Enjoy the rest of your weekend menu, hope we'll see that pork tomorrow!

R
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Reffing was my first job at age 12 and still do it today. Adult Hispanic League runs opposite to my boys schedule. My son turned 12 last winter so I told him I would help him start to ref the 2nd through 5th graders rec league, but again the pandemic has changed that goal until fall. Our league of choice is the, EPL, but the Bundesliga is out second favorite.
Getting the second cook prepped right now, pictures will be posted!
Rich, need your advice on the Monday's cook what order on the WSM do I do the chicken and open tray of vegs. What should I do on the top rack and what should I do on the bottom?
 
Cook Number 2
Just a salt rub on this Carolina style pork shoulder. A mop of ac vinegar, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, and sugar waiting to go on every few hours.20200523_200818.jpg

Here is the set up for the next cook. The rack from the first cook is soaking in the sink, the original waiting to go on. Water pan ready for this cook. Switched out charcoal from KBB to Weber and got the themopro probes ready to go. 20200523_214741.jpg
 

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Michael Richards said:
Our league of choice is the, EPL, but the Bundesliga is out second favorite.
Getting the second cook prepped right now, pictures will be posted!
Rich, need your advice on the Monday's cook what order on the WSM do I do the chicken and open tray of vegs. What should I do on the top rack and what should I do on the bottom?
Click to expand...
Great that you are getting him out there, if nothing else, refereeing develops an even better understanding of the game! I'm an EPL/BPL guy, too, but happy to watch Lewandowski score any day of the week! ;)

I would do the chicken on the bottom rack. In all honesty, people get weird about chicken juices dripping on anything, but then again, one of my favorite things to eat is the potatoes that the "chicken rotisserie guy" cooks underneath his chickens on the truck at the farmer's market. :) But, it's easy to cook chicken on the bottom, veg on the top, so..... :)

R
 
Looks great, Michael! Thank you for sharing your story, sports can bring us all closer and it is touching your son decided to honor your late brother.

The chicken you smoked looks amazing, was this high heat? Looks to be around 300 lid temp in one pic. Great idea cooking over direct coals to crisp skin. Did you just remove the smoker body and put a grate over the coals? Is this the same grate from the WSM itself?

Excited to see how the pork comes out, good luck!

Cheers,
Kyle
 
So with the chicken I did not even watch the temps but here what I did. Full chimney of KBB, and then when that was red hot put a half chimney on top of that, two little pieces of apple wood. No water pan and chicken on the top rack of the 14 WSM. Flipped and mopped every 5 minutes for about 40 minutes. Then, yes popped the rack out of the WSM put in on my old Brinkman that is used as a table/chimney started BBQ tool so that I could take then middle section off then I placed the rack right on the charcoal ring. Put the lid on top on the bottom piece and closed, open, flip, closed a few times until looked good.
I love taking the WSM apart and using the bottom and the charcoal ring for the end of cooks to get that sear.
I do chicken two ways on my WSM. One is if I am just doing Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast which I do lot of, I like to go with water in the water pan and cook at 250, this takes 90 to 120 mins and then if I am saucing them I like to add that sauce and do it over the hot charcoal to finish. If I am doing whole chickens or pieces with bones I like to leave out the water pan and just let it go. Today was the first time I did a mix of boneless and boned and I was worried about the time, but put them both on at the same time and they both came to temp at the same time up top. I just did the breast about 7 to 8 mins over the hot coals and the legs about 12 to 15. Both come out perfect.
 
Rich G said:
Great that you are getting him out there, if nothing else, refereeing develops an even better understanding of the game! I'm an EPL/BPL guy, too, but happy to watch Lewandowski score any day of the week! ;)

I would do the chicken on the bottom rack. In all honesty, people get weird about chicken juices dripping on anything, but then again, one of my favorite things to eat is the potatoes that the "chicken rotisserie guy" cooks underneath his chickens on the truck at the farmer's market. :) But, it's easy to cook chicken on the bottom, veg on the top, so..... :)

R
Click to expand...
Lewandowski makes it look so easy!!! So I am/was a Spurs fan in high school years and my son become an Arsenal fan all on his own, without even knowing they were Spurs biggest rivals. Now, don't tell my son this, but over the last five years I have become a bigger Arsenal fan then a Spurs fan, I know it's treason, but true.
Chicken on bottom, vegs on top was what my guts was telling me but wanted to make sure. Thanks, for the guidance as always!
Michael
 
Michael Richards said:
So with the chicken I did not even watch the temps but here what I did. Full chimney of KBB, and then when that was red hot put a half chimney on top of that, two little pieces of apple wood. No water pan and chicken on the top rack of the 14 WSM. Flipped and mopped every 5 minutes for about 40 minutes. Then, yes popped the rack out of the WSM put in on my old Brinkman that is used as a table/chimney started BBQ tool so that I could take then middle section off then I placed the rack right on the charcoal ring. Put the lid on top on the bottom piece and closed, open, flip, closed a few times until looked good.
I love taking the WSM apart and using the bottom and the charcoal ring for the end of cooks to get that sear.
I do chicken two ways on my WSM. One is if I am just doing Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast which I do lot of, I like to go with water in the water pan and cook at 250, this takes 90 to 120 mins and then if I am saucing them I like to add that sauce and do it over the hot charcoal to finish. If I am doing whole chickens or pieces with bones I like to leave out the water pan and just let it go. Today was the first time I did a mix of boneless and boned and I was worried about the time, but put them both on at the same time and they both came to temp at the same time up top. I just did the breast about 7 to 8 mins over the hot coals and the legs about 12 to 15. Both come out perfect.
Click to expand...

Gunna try this with wings...no water pan smoke on top rack, then finish on bottom rack or directly over coals if I can find a grate to fit. Thanks!
 
Finally did Roadside Chicken! It will be in more rotation this year! Yours looks great Michael!
We will be combining Smoke Day with John Wayne’s Birthday tomorrow!
 
KEhrl said:
Gunna try this with wings...no water pan smoke on top rack, then finish on bottom rack or directly over coals if I can find a grate to fit. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Your top grate will sit right on top the charcoal ring perfectly, go for it. I was thinking about the method of getting the top rack to over the hot coals. You can move the middle section off the lower section with the grate and food still on it and then move the grate over to the lower section. You don't need the second grill to do it.
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
Finally did Roadside Chicken! It will be in more rotation this year! Yours looks great Michael!
We will be combining Smoke Day with John Wayne’s Birthday tomorrow!
Click to expand...
Yep first attempt of Road Side Chicken on Smoke Day was a success! My late grandfather was a huge western movie fan, thanks for adding to the memories this weekend!
 
Doing a spatchcock chicken generously enrobed in a Tuscan herb infused olive oil tonight.
Maintained social distancing by taking an old fashioned “country drive” today. Got to the favorite ice cream parlor two hours before they opened, (DIL said they were open, didn’t question, my bad) I love her but, information transference can be somewhat askew.
Tomorrow will be the JW birthday collaboration (1 guy bringing some Texas twinkies and belly burnt ends) the rest is on me. Have re thought some of the things I might expand some and delete others, playing it loose as weather may be “Iffy”
Should have done it today! For me the apex of Kalamazoo valley weather, reasonable humidity top temp of 85 but, SWMBO declared a country drive was a good idea.
Sad part, thought about maybe a nice piece of beef when I stopped for fuel and ice(and vodka) there was nothing in the case but doubles of chucks and burger! Quite a bit of pork but, 20 cents a pound more than last weeks Meijer price.
Vodka, ice, and “home desk flowers” for the best wife a man could ask for was the under $40 tab not including the fuel.
I married a wonderful woman!
To quote the “Lovin’ Spoonful” it was
“What a day for a daydream!”
Fruit orchards looking healthy, a (very) few roadside farmers looking like there was traffic. Stopped in at a place in South Haven that the sweetest wanted to look at. While She went there, I took a look at a new Olive oil place. Nice but, more tourist driven than Fustini’s in Holland. I may be biased but, I will have a better idea after a cook or two.
If you are in reasonable distance of a Fustini office, be safe and visit! The quality and “single sourced” credentials are good enough for me.
Dropped a card there too, Chris! The “Agent”(?) liked the “Smoke Day Shirt”!
 
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Day 2
I put this massive shoulder on my little WSM right at midnight last night, as you can see it barely fit. 20200524_000358.jpg
Here are my son and I peeking in our 16ths. I'm in my brother and he is in his 4th kit.
20200524_140816_HDR.jpg
Here we are right as it is ready to be wrapped and rested.
20200524_140842_HDR.jpg20200524_140928.jpg
After being in the cooler for a few hours and pulled. 20200524_172311.jpg
I made way to much food. My youngest daughter reminded me that I promised to make homemade mac and cheese the next time I made pulled pork so I wiped those up last min. 20200524_172603.jpg
And the plate (I had two sandwiches, and a nap after)
20200524_173546.jpg
Two things made this sandwich perfect. The first was Martin's Potato Rolls, these are made in my home town and simply are the best rolls ever!20200524_172624.jpg
And second is bbq sauces from Hog Heaven in SC. I have tried to mimic this ribs and chicken sauce for over a year now, and can't even get close. When we go to SC we bring some home, but it goes to quick. So a few weeks ago I called and ordered a half gallon of the ribs and chicken and a small bottle of the vinegar based mild. They also have a hot vinegar based and a mustard based. Pulled Pork is always good but we have decided that it is always better with when we can pull Hog Heaven bbq sauce out of the fridge. 20200524_172638.jpg

Day 3
Chicken is in the frig brining to be smoked tomorrow.
 
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