- Aug 8, 2011
- 721
- 37
So this was my first attempt at doing a whole chicken, and I did 3 of them. All of the chickens were at the 5.3 pound mark. I was going for a stable temp of 330*F but for some reason I could only get my cooking area to 288*F and it held pretty stable around there for an hour or so. Then I had an epiphany about my smoker, its a conventional smoker with no convection plate. So I knew I'd have a hot spot closer to my side fire box. Sure enough I move my pit probe over and boom right at the 330* mark where I wanted to be. So I moved my chickens over and began to rotate them when I spritzed them with apple juice. I used Cherry wood, dry chunks, to add my smoke flavor. I also seasoned the chickens with Bone Suckin Good rub, on the right half of each chicken I used a layer of mustard. The flavor was excellent and the chickens were very moist indeed. My drip can under my cooker over filled about 2/3 of the way through! I had to get another can under it after I was too late in noticing a big mess on the ground. I used my BBQ Guru DigiQ Dx for the second time and I love this thing, its my little buddy.
Also a week or two ago, I got my cooking chamber temp in the 300* range and steamed cleaned it, and I honestly tasted a difference in my meat. It tasted a lot better, had a cleaner more clearer taste, if that makes sense. I gave a chicken to my family and another to my inlaws. My in laws loved it, and they're kinda hard critics of smoked meats. My father in law kept talking about going into a business of some type.
My critique of the chicken was that the skin could have been a litter crisper, I think that was mostly due to the 288* range that it was sitting at for a little bit, or at least initially.
So without further delay here is the Q-View from start to finish. I tried to get a good pic of my smoke, I believe it falls under the thin blue smoke category.... Enjoy
Also a week or two ago, I got my cooking chamber temp in the 300* range and steamed cleaned it, and I honestly tasted a difference in my meat. It tasted a lot better, had a cleaner more clearer taste, if that makes sense. I gave a chicken to my family and another to my inlaws. My in laws loved it, and they're kinda hard critics of smoked meats. My father in law kept talking about going into a business of some type.
My critique of the chicken was that the skin could have been a litter crisper, I think that was mostly due to the 288* range that it was sitting at for a little bit, or at least initially.
So without further delay here is the Q-View from start to finish. I tried to get a good pic of my smoke, I believe it falls under the thin blue smoke category.... Enjoy