1st Chicken Smoke Help

[planeguy]

I have done a ton of beer can chickens on my gas grill.

I am looking for some help on my 1st chicken smoke in my Weber Kettle.

Free QVIEW to the 1st 10 folks that provide tips!!

Thanks

 

[dingle]

My suggestion would be to go a bit higher with your temps...300-325. This tends to keep the skin from getting rubbery. Also chicken in my opinion does not benefit as much from low-n-slow as say beef and pork. Good luck on your smoke!

 

[bmudd14474]

I would brine the chicken for a few hours then smoke it @300ish until done. Or you can smoke at 225-250 then when at temp or near finish them over direct heat to crisp up.

Cant wait to see the view.

 

[fire it up]

I agree, brine it up and either shoot for the 300ish temp range or as bmudd said, finish over direct heat to crisp up the skin.

 

[mballi3011]

Like they all said. Brine it and smoke it and at the end turn up the heat to crisp the skin or if you want to throw it on the regular grill to crisp the skin.

 

[hoser]

All the above is good advice. I say brine it for sure...especially if going with the higher temps, which I would recommend for crisy skin's sake.
good luck with your chicken, I'll be thinking about it while I do my leaping frog turkey

 

[flash]

Devil's advocate checking in. Don't waste you time with the brinning. More than likely this is a store bought bird and already in a solution. If a full bird, you can set it up just like your beer can chicken, except add smoke. As others said, if skin is not crisp, finish it on the gasser. Of course, we shouldn't eat the skin anyway.

 

[rdowens]

Put me in the brining camp. Wiviott recommends after the brine, to let the chicken air dry in the fridge for several hours before smoking. He claims this helps produce a crispy skin.

I followed this method yesterday with two fresh birds. I never had such a juicy chicken and the chicken was crispy. Smoked at 225 for an hour and a half.

 

[eman]

That's some fine looking yard bird! RD sent you an email.