Whole Smoked Chicken Qview!

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whiskeyfoot

Fire Starter
Original poster
Feb 9, 2012
73
10
Orlando, FL
Hey all!

Threw on a whole chicken yesterday, simply rubbed with Penzey's Northwoods Fire seasoning and that's it!

Don't have any before shots, but here's the result!  Was smoked with a 50/50 mix of mesquite and hickory.

2f90ae76_SmokedChicken.jpg


I never thought the skin would crisp up in my water smoker, but is sure does just fine!
 
I cooked it as close to 220 as my smoker would allow.  It's a Cabela's Deluxe Electric smoker that I purchased used from a friend, and the temps seem to fluctuate almost twenty degrees when I'm cooking.  So the digital probe was reading between 200-225 give or take the entire time.  (Probe was stabbed through a potato out the other side, and the potato was placed directly on the grate near but not touching the chicken).

dadbb72c_Smoker.jpg


Being that my results are turning out just fine, I haven't worried too much about the fluxuation...but I'm curious, is that normal?  I know the heating element cycles just like an electric stove will, but 20 degrees just seems like a lot to me......
 
What cooking temperature were you hold to, and how long in the smoker?  I looks mighty good.


What do you mean by 'hold to'?  I'm a newbie! lol
If you mean internal temp, I had a second probe in the breast and let it get to 169 before pulling chicken out and allowing to sit for a while.  

A few weeks ago I got the Smoke & Spice book, which seems to be an awesome resource for smoking foods, and most of their 'whole chicken' recipes say to bring it to like 185* I think, but around the forum here the consensus seems to be 165* (I've always gone with lower temp when I grilled, as long as juices ran clear.  I'm still alive!).  It also said to cook the chicken half way through with the breast down, then flip over (breast up) for the second half of the cooking....I flipped it at like 120* or 130* then let it finish.  I should probably keep better track of how long it took to cook.  I want to say it was in there at least 4 hours, perhaps 5.  Sorry, I will keep better track of that next time (I was going off the thermometer temp, not time....)

Big thanks on the compliments everyone!  Some people just don't get it (like my roomies, they just gobble it up!), I have that picture as my desktop haha!
 
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