First smoke on the MES30G1

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dartguy

Newbie
Original poster
Mar 28, 2015
21
18
Richmond, Va
Decided to do a chicken first.  Brined it for 24 hours in a simple brine of water/salt/brown sugar.  Stuffed the inside with chunked up apple/lemon/onion/garlic cloves - with some olive oil and salt and pepper.  Sprinkled some salt and pepper, cayenne and paprika on the outside after slathering it with olive oil.  Smoked at 240-255 deg for four hours using Pitmaster's Blend in the AMNPS.  Most delicious chicken I have ever eaten!!!  Even the wife loved it!!

Bathing the bird:


My helper getting things set up:


Lighting the AMNPS:


In it goes!


Getting there (put probe inside thigh and got IT to 170):


DONE!!!!!!!!!

 
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Reactions: gary s and rmmurray
Gary:  The flavor was outstanding!  Every few bites you distinctly got a taste of the lemon that was stuffed inside.  I'm sure that contributed to the moistness of the meat, too.

Ryan:  Thanks!!
 
points1.png
  sorry I forgot

Gary
 
That looks mighty fine--absolutely textbook! Loved your description of your flavor profile and use of aromatics. My wife excels at oven roasted chicken and yours looks and sounds like it tasted a lot like hers.

Did you crisp up the skin inside the smoker or finish up in an oven? So, you didn't even futz around with wood chips. You did the smart thing and employed the AMNPS the first time out. I've had great success with that Pitmaster's Blend.

It's always shocking to me to see how clean inside a new MES is. I think mine looked that clean and pristine...once.
 
Rick, didn't crisp the skin.  It was a bit chewy but tasted pretty good!  Will have to work on that.  And yea, the AMNPS was great!  I didn't have to open that thing up till about two hours in to put my temp probe into the meat (only a single probe unit at the moment and I wanted to monitor the inside temp of the MES for a while).  Just kept watching that TBS coming out of the chimney!  A lovely sight!
 
 
Rick, didn't crisp the skin.  It was a bit chewy but tasted pretty good!  Will have to work on that.  And yea, the AMNPS was great!  I didn't have to open that thing up till about two hours in to put my temp probe into the meat (only a single probe unit at the moment and I wanted to monitor the inside temp of the MES for a while).  Just kept watching that TBS coming out of the chimney!  A lovely sight!
Yesterday I was smoking and set up some test temp probes. After about 2 hours my temps lined up very well. I placed a 15 inch skewer on the second rack and pointed the probes down 2 temp probes one on the left a couple inches in and one on the right. In the middle I placed me Auber controller probe. What I found was that the left was 2 degrees cooler than the center and the right was 2 hotter than the right. After saucing the right probe turned up to near the top shelf. I had turned The heat up to 265 on the Auber and found the heat was near 295 on the top shelf. I say this because the next time I want to crisp up skin I will slow smoke for a couple of hours to 120 degrees then turn it up and move the bird to the second shelf to utilize the rising heat.  The last 40 or 45 degrees may crisp the skin. I should mention the 4 hour hour rule that needs to be followed.   Just a thought.  Jted
 
Dart

Nice job on the first smoke looks near perfection. 

Just a thought on the brining container. IMHO you would be better served to use a non-metal container.

The brine can possibly pick up a metal taste.

Plastic zip lock bags work well for this.

Larry
 
twoalpha, thanks for the tip on the brining container.  Wife suggested some 6 qt plastic bowls with lids she saw at the local Sam's.  These should do just fine for brining more birds!
 
Nice job, looks great. Aromatics are definitely the way to go. A 24 hour long brine is more than you need - not that it would cause any problems but you probably don't benefit from anything over 6 hours. At least that's been my experience. For a 4lb bird, I usually go 4 hours. Of course, that means you don't need to plan ahead so you can pick up a bird in the morning and have it later the same day.

Oh, and that pot looks like it's stainless steel which is non reactive, so should be fine. 
 
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Rick, didn't crisp the skin.  It was a bit chewy but tasted pretty good!  Will have to work on that.  And yea, the AMNPS was great!  I didn't have to open that thing up till about two hours in to put my temp probe into the meat (only a single probe unit at the moment and I wanted to monitor the inside temp of the MES for a while).  Just kept watching that TBS coming out of the chimney!  A lovely sight!
I smoked a skin-on turkey breast in my MES 30 Gen 1 and didn't crisp the skin either. The way I look at it, it takes long enough to smoke a bird without having the additional hassle of transferring it to an oven to crisp up the skin. That turkey breast turned out great.
 
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