My 1st time using a MEF,,,,without the "E"

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hextejas

Newbie
Original poster
Dec 17, 2013
25
10
In other words mine is not electrric. Plus this is my 1st time using the techniques, recipes, and equipment mentioned here.

I was really interested in doing a brined turkey but had thought that I better practice on something smaller.

So, I had 4 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in 5 breasts.

I brined them for 4 hours in the Slaughterhouse mix, adjusted by about 1/3.

I planned to cook them at 225 for about 3 hours or until the IT was 165.

I had just gotten my new A-Maze-in smoker and was eager to put it to use. Based upon readings it seemed like I would only need to fill it part way since they seem to last a long time. Wrong in my case. I filled it to about 1/2 way on one of the outside rows. I think I should have completely filled one row or more. Do I need to pack the sawdust in or is it loosely fit ?

I have the AMNPS 5x8

Another poster here had talked about rolling the breasts around some pineapple so we did that which was a mistake.

As my wife pointed out later, pineapple is used as a meat tenderizer so the breast meat where the pineapple was, was very mushy.

This is what we did.

Rolled the breasts around some sliced, fresh pineapple and then wrapped each breast in 2 strips of bacon and pinned them shut with tooth picks. Oh yeah, I forgot to add that we rubbed them down with a little yellow mustard and a dusting of Emeril's creole seasoning.

Popped them in the smoker with the thickest breast having a temperature probe,

I left out the water and filled the water pan with leftover lava rocks. Hey, I didn't have any sand.

I also soaked 3 handfulls of hickory chips and put them in the chip pan. I wasn't totally trusting my skills with the Amazin smoker yet.

Fired up the M-noe-S and sat back to watch.

Oh yeah, I also hung another internal thermometer inside to see how close the built in was.

Well, the smoker started smoking almost right away with the wood chips as well as the Amazin. According to the built-in temp, it was about 300 so I adjusted it down to around 250 or thereabouts. Luckily the independent thermometer inside was reading about the same as the built-in.

Ok, as we progressed, the Amazin burned through its sawdust in about an hour. So, either I need more sawdust or it was too hot and burned too fast. Maybe having the chips in there had something to do with it.

When I noticed that the sawdust was all gone, I added 3 more handfulls of soaked cips.

After 3 hours the IT had just got to 160 after being stuck at 158 for a long time, about 30 minutes.

I took the chicken out, covered it with foil and let it sit for 10 minutes.

The consensus was that it was delicious and very moist far better than normal. Though I am not sure that the brine added any flavor. The moistness was what impressed me.

Plus it looks pretty according to the Mrs.
 
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