First smoke with new MES30 - chicken thighs

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paulh1966

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Aug 26, 2014
77
15
Benton, AR USA
Here is a pic of my chicken thighs, I brined them first , then olive oil and jeffs rub. They came out moist . I tried to use the AMNPS but couldn't get it to stay lit , so wound up using Hickory in the chip try every 30 minutes. I actually think I would have liked it smoked only for first hour, was too smokey for my taste loading hickory in there ever half hour for 2.5 hours.

 
 
 I actually think I would have liked it smoked only for first hour, was too smokey for my taste loading hickory in there ever half hour for 2.5 hours.
 Its a great thing to try the minimalistic approach first. Hickory and mesquite can be very harsh when applied liberally. You can use them with any meat but you must learn how to adjust the quantity to match the meat.

The amps is a great aux. smoker, it just takes a few mins to set up. I always point out if you want it to would for you for hours, its worth 30 mins to insure its set up and happy. Biggest mistake I made was I wanted to fill UP the tray, try leaving at least a 1/4" from the top of the tray.

The sweet spot for smoke absorption is 100 to 145 IT, so with chicken a one hours smoke is really sufficient. Too much of a good thing is still too much.

If you feel the need tpo add more chips to your MES30, I highly suggest you add  about 1/2 C every hour to hour and one half. If you add more chips and the old ones have not completely combusted the new ones will not seat or settle on the tray bottom to get enough heat to start smoldering.

These are all things you'll get used to.

Other than a little bite with the bark from the smoke, looks like a good smoke.
 
Thanks guys, on sunday i spent some time playing with just the AMNPS and get it to go for around 4 hours, it got halfway through the second row and went out, i noticed that the stack of pellets was king of higher at the spot it went out.  I used cookinpellets perfect mix , recommended by someone here. 
 
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