Whole Chicken In New Smoker

[oldedude]

Well I haven't done much smokin in the last few years, but just got a new Brinkman charcoal upright smoker (the square one with two doors) so I'm starting to get back into it. Last week I smoked a 14 lb turkey, turned out great but I really struggled to keep the heat up much over 200. Well this week I did some mods to the smoker, mainly getting one of those square Grill Woks to use as my charcoal pan, and this will be my first smoke with that.

Okay, I've never brined a bird before, so I figured I'd start with a whole chicken, about 4 1/2 lbs, brined for 4+ hours in 1 gallon water, 3/4 cup kosher salt, 3/4 cup brown sugar, some garlic, and some lime pepper. Got my coals going, put water in the pan, and put the bird in.

Wow, what a difference that new coal pan makes! It took some doing to get my temps down below 250. Right now its about 2 1/2 hours in, looks great, and I'm holding pretty steady right at 220 - 225. I'll post again later with the final results.

 

[sumosmoke]

Sounds like a good bird is on your smoker, Dude. Hope to see some pics if possible. Good luck!

 

[oregonnewbie]

Where did you get the Grill Wok??? I have the same smoker and I have all kinds of problems keeping the temp up.

 

[oldedude]

I got it at Lowes, about $10. Here a picture from another thread:

 

[oldedude]

Well the chicken turned out great. Cooked for about 4 1/2 hours, thermometer said it was at 167 when I pulled it out. Everything was really moist and flavorful, I'm definitely sold on using a brine on poultry. I used a pretty basic brine, soaked for 4+ hours, rinsed, dried, and sprinkled some cajun seasoning inside, out, and under the skin. Used a combination of mesquite lump charcoal, Kingsford briquets and hickory wood chips.


Here's the bird ready to go to the table.

 

[mossymo]

OldeDude
Very nice looking bird, you have me drooling !!!

 

[davenh]

Nice bird dude

!

 

[seboke]

Great job on the bird dude!

 

[waysideranch]

Nice bird old dude.

 

[bbq bubba]

Nice job on the bird!!

Next time try cooking at 300 for some great skin!

 

[ronp]

Nice job, looks good!

 

[cman95]

Nice looking bird there. Ya did good.

 

[travcoman45]

Fine lookin bird! I like ta give mine a spritz each hour ta hep with some skin crispy, but yers sure do look good!

 

[oldedude]

I usually don't worry about getting the skin too crispy, the wife and I don't usually eat it much anyways.

Thanks for all the nice comments everyone.

 

[pheinzman]

I did the same thing with the wok pan. It worked almost too well. Today I will be smoking a couple of chickens sitting on a couple of half full beer cans. I'm going to decrease the amount of charcoal (I'm trying lump for the first time) and will only be adding one lump of hickory wood at a time.

 

[pigcicles]

Congratulations on the new smoker and mod guys. Now that you have good air flow through your heat source you might try the Minion Method of burning the coals so your fire isn't so hot. It will also be good for the long smokes too, which is what it is actually for.

Give it a shot and let us know how it goes ... http://virtualweberbullet.com/fireup2.html#minion

 

[erain]

great lookin bird, am sure the with the brine it taste great!!!

 

[abelman]

Great job,

 

[cowgirl]

That looks wonderful Dude!

 

[pheinzman]

Thanks. I was reading about the Minion Method last night. Definitely will be trying it when I do my first brisket--hopefully next weekend.