It's on..... Mother's Day feast or fiasco !

[newarcher]

Got the new gaskets on the Chargriller Akorn and it's ready to go.

I have the following menu planned for Dinner tomorrow:

Four racks of baby back ribs (currently resting and marinating with a rub base of veggie oil and dry rub).  I took the membrane off the back of the ribs.  I was planning to just smoke them on the grill but I've been convinced to use the 2-2-1 method.

One full chicken that I will brine in the morning while we're at Church.  I'll coat it with the same rub I used for the ribs and see how it goes.

Corn on the cobb that I will smoke.

Baby backs should take about 5-6 hours

Chicken should take 3-4 hours

Corn should take 2+ hours.

Now fitting it all on the grill is going to be another story! :D  I have a rib rack system that might help make it all fit.

I've done Salmon a couple times, burgers a couple times, a beautiful Boston Butt, and some bacon.  This will be my first foray into Ribs and Chicken.  We'll either eat it, enjoy it, or die trying. :D

 

[newarcher]

Well I am done...... after action report.

Gaskets:  Worked like a charm, I could shut it down mid-smoke and couldn't hardly find any smoke escaping.  I found that I could finally leave it at 230 and once it stabilized it stayed there for hours.

New thermometer:  Maverick ET732 was the bomb.  I carried it all around the house and the remote was a God send.  The alarm helped me a couple of times when I had added meat or buttered the corn. 

The great news is that the Akorn was extremely easy to lock in at whatever temperature I wanted.  I found that by putting the meat on as it was coming up to temperature was better (by far) than getting the temperature to the desired temp and then throwing on large, cold meat.

Ribs:  outstanding, very juicy and the homemade sauce I made was great.  Raw, it tasted a little vinegar-ish but when basted on the ribs it was outstanding.  I found that heating the left over sauce made it better.  The ribs themselves were from Kroger and were inconsistently sized between racks and I thought they were a little too fatty.  But form over function, this was a WIN.

Chicken:  Just wow.  I cut a whole chicken in half and then just smoked it on the top rack (ribs on the bottom).  It was so juicy and accepted the smoke so well that I just wanted more.

Corn:  It was wonderful but I overcooked it (this was my first time doing ribs, chicken and corn and my first time doing more than once thing at a time).  It was still very good but I'd have taken it off earlier if given the chance again.

All in all, I would do every bit of it again---only I would likely cut some of the salt in the chicken brine and rubs.

Thanks to all who helped me.  You've created a monster.....what an awesome feeling to sit around a table with people drooling while they eat, knowing "I did that" :D

 

[fwismoker]

Awesome, glad to hear things worked out well...love it when a plan comes together.   

I did a couple of chickens over the pit on the drum smoker...34 degree chickens and 49 degrees starting temp, ramped it up to 325 for a little over 2 hours and had a couple of super moist tasty chickens for Mom. 

 

[newarcher]

Nice!

I'm extra glad I bought the Akorn sized cooker because 3 racks of ribs, 1 full chicken and five corn was all she could hold.  But man it was great and the weather here in GA was MAGNIFICENT......windy and cool but still sunny.

Considering that there were three things to make, it went really well.  Our own worst critics. :D