1st time for whole chickens

[indyadmin1974]

I'm doing a somewhat big smoke for our lodge tonight (in the Pork forum) and we have a few guys who don't eat pork for various reasons but they love chicken.

So I rubbed down 2 whole chickens inside and out and put them in the smoker at about 6:30 this morning:

I'm hoping that the smoker will get hotter but it's chilly and windy right now so we may have to go to the oven if things are not close to 140° by about 8:30.

You can almost see the TBS...gotta read the manual on this new point and shoot camera...it was much lighter than this outside.

I hope to have these guys done by 1 or 2 this afternoon and I'll put them in the cooler with the butts.

I'll post some QView from dinner when I get home tonight.

Thanks for looking.

 

[danielh]

Looks good, but those guys are going to be done way before 1 or 2. My guess would be by 10am at 250, and even before that if you are cooking hotter..

 

[indyadmin1974]

I think you're right...completely forgot I only need to go to 170°. They are at 146 now.

Foil or no foil?

 

[roltyde]

I pull mine at 165. They're done and nice and juicy! I've foil and let them rest about 20 minutes or so, if I can keep the starving masses at bay for that long.

 

[john3198]

What he said. Pull at 165 and then rest for 20 -30 min. Skin may not be crisp, but you can throw it on the grill for a few if you want to fix that.

 

[caveman]

What they said.

 

[indyadmin1974]

Thanks all!

I let it go a little long and they got to 176°. All in all, for my first round of whole birds, I was impressed.

I failed to get any pics of the finished product though. If I would have been more with it, I would have fired up the Weber and crisped them up...though I'm not sure the skin would have stayed crisp since I had to wait 6 hours before serving them.

Good times were had by all and I only have a few pounds of pork left...can't wait to do the birds again!