First Smoked Whole Chicken

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brnsfansmoke

Newbie
Original poster
Jul 23, 2013
15
10
North East Ohio
Tried my first whole Chicken this weekend. Details and pics below:

One 3.5 lb. whole chicken

Homemade rub overnite

Charcoal, mesquite, and apple wood

Kept chamber between 250-300

Cook time 4 hrs.

Pulled chicken at 170 let stand for 25 mins.

(date stamp on pics is incorrect, note to self, need to fix that)


homemade rub let sit overnight


good fire going in box


Begin cook time


Weather was cool with no wind so used a fan as stoker. Worked well as long as you watched it.


Took some effort to get temps up to 300


Make-shift stoker


About 2.5 hrs in


Added some corn and baked beans


Smoked corn came out good, vey moist


Occasionally got temps upt to 300+ and would hold for 20-30 minutes


Pulled chicken at IT of 170


After 25 min rest (foil covered)


A butcher I am not


Meat was very juicy and skin had the right amount of crispy!


Platted and ready to eat!!

Some notes:

This is my first time smoking a whole chicken on this smoker (brinkman offset).  In most of the threads I had read to keep the chamber temp at or around 300. I had a hard time doing that with this smoker. It may be the limit of this smoker design or the quality. I have had great success smoking ribs and pork shoulders where the temps do not need to reach 300. Any suggestions on getting a higher chamber temp on this smoker?
 
Great looking Chicken!

The BBQ Guru might have a stoker that would help you keep the temps up. I would suggest putting the chicken near the firebox side of the smoker.
 
I'd sure eat that! Yes I have a suggestion to try. Put a pan the FB side filled with sand and cover with foil.. Let that serve as a mass and take the brunt of the heat.

To increase the pit temp use lump charcoal and consider a Pitmasteriq stoker to increase the heat more. It's a less expensive PID that works well and has a 15 cfm fan. A steady 325ish heat will give the best results.
 
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