My schedule opened up a little and my wife asked me to smoke some chickens tomorrow! I've smoked on one of those small Brinkman Smoke N' Grill jobs a couple of times and the chicken came out great! This will be my first real smoke on a Kamado, so any advise would be really appreciated.
Some questions...
Some questions...
- With my little Brinkman, I used to soak the wood chunks in water for a couple of hours ahead of throwing them on the charcoal. Should I continue that?
- How many fist size chunks should I throw on there?
- I'm using chunks of hickory; because it's what I have. But I also have a couple of other wood chips (mesquite and pecan I think). Is there any benefit to using some of the chips too? If so, how much should I use, when should I add it, and should it be water soaked or dry?
- It's my understanding that I don't need a water pan in the Kamado because they tend to hold the moisture and not dry out the meat. (I'm using a drip pan with some water though, positioned on the plate setter/stone thing, to catch drippings and keep the drippings from burning). Should I consider basting the chicken in something (I've used beer or Jack Daniels mixed with butter in the past) to keep it moist?
- Can I open up the vents at the end to bring up the heat and crisp the skin on my chickens? I've never been able to get my little Brinkman to crisp the skin.
- What temp do you guys recommend I get the chicken up to? Is the chicken done when it gets up to that temp, is it done? Or is the goal to get the internal temp up and hold it for a period of time? I'll be using a Maverick RediCheck.