Help! Chicken had bad smoke taste

[forluvofsmoke]

Any time, fellow smoker, any time. I figured you have a fix, or at least a better direction to head once you got a couple tips from someone. First time rarely yields good results, unless you know a few of the basics. Hey, at only $18 in losses for meat, that's not too bad...could have been $20/lb beef tenderloin...

...

BTW, please stop by in ROLL CALL forum and introduce yourself and let others know about your cookers and experience with them. We can properly welcome you to the SMF Family and help you better in the future if we know a bit about your cooking experience/cookers right from the start (we can check your profile page and see your posts for more info...cool, eh?).

Eric

 

[ashaw]

Haha Eric, that sounds like maybe a bit of experience there on that $20 a lb! ;)  I am sure I will be back in here, I am a total smokin' newb but at least it's starting to make sense now and I see some changes to make!

 

[forluvofsmoke]

HA-ha!!! Actually, it just reminded me of 6 days ago when I reverse seared a couple 1/3lb tenderloin filets on my 26" Weber kettle (along with a mess of other beef steaks)...thought I overcooked them before I even tossed a hot bed of coals into the kettle for the sear. Turns out they just had this BEAUTIFUL mahogany color from the warm smoke with mesquite and cherry, and were sealed-up nice and snug from a dry smoke chamber. Picked them up with tongs and they felt fine, still soft and spongy...they just hadn't warmed through enough to begin venting juices yet...all was well...uh, I mean, med-rare (after the sear)...and extraordinarily tender and delicious, I might add. Been a LONG time since I totally destroyed anything to the point of it not being edible...probably a couple months before I found SMF and joined in on all the fun and learning. You found a massive wealth of knowledge, experience and insight when you found SMF, my friend...and did I mention tons of great people who persue and spread this wealth??? OK, now I did...enjoy your time here!!!

Eric

 

[ashaw]

Haha!  What a story but hey it all worked out!  I look forward to learning.  I love that Cooker that I got from Pappy's and the Smoke shack is just another fun tool to experiment with.  I can't wait to try again!  I'm excited to have found this place

 

[jccampb]

I think the problem is the thin slices ..... I always smoke chicken (in my Big Green Egg, I used to have the one you have) on one of those wire 'beer-can' chicken frames holding it up vertically so that the smoke and the heat get into the cavity (and I always cook whole birds). Last one I did (we're still eating it) I put in beside a boneless spiral cut ham for about 2 hours over applewood and chunk Green Egg charcoal and both turned out perfectly...  I know some people "grill" chicken parts but doing it the way I've described above comes out perfect and with just the right smoke flavor.

 

[millerbuilds]

The other thing to try, is to build your fire close to the door with the inlet vent.  I have an Old Country Pit and I have found to build my fire near the door.

Smoke ON!

-Jason

 

[snowaviation]

You guys may already know about this, but on my first chicken smoke my fire started to go out so to speed up the process of getting the smoker back up to temp I added Fatwood sticks.  Natural wood right?  Should work great right?

Don't ever do that.  

Yech, bleck, patooey, bad chicken.

 

[forluvofsmoke]

 
I think the problem is the thin slices ..... I always smoke chicken (in my Big Green Egg, I used to have the one you have) on one of those wire 'beer-can' chicken frames holding it up vertically so that the smoke and the heat get into the cavity (and I always cook whole birds). Last one I did (we're still eating it) I put in beside a boneless spiral cut ham for about 2 hours over applewood and chunk Green Egg charcoal and both turned out perfectly...  I know some people "grill" chicken parts but doing it the way I've described above comes out perfect and with just the right smoke flavor.

Smaller pieces of meat or poultry don't require exposure to smoke for as long as larger pieces to achieve adequate flavor. Other than that, size really does not matter for smoking. I smoke pieces more often than I smoke whole birds...I've never had an offensive, strong, acrid smoke flavor or aroma when doing this. You just need to balance the smoke intensity with the length of exposure to smoke based on size of the meat, smoke chamber temperature, and most importantly, control of smoke quality...quality not so much referring to color and density as it is flow through the smoke chamber...gotta keep the smoke moving from the source through the chamber and out the vent so it does not get stagnant.

 
You guys may already know about this, but on my first chicken smoke my fire started to go out so to speed up the process of getting the smoker back up to temp I added Fatwood sticks.  Natural wood right?  Should work great right?

Don't ever do that.  

Yech, bleck, patooey, bad chicken.

  

  

I bet that was a rude awakening, and a bitter lesson!!! Yep, you can't mess around with resin-woods and direct-fired cookers (that's just like using fir or pine for firing or smoke wood...resin forms creosote...very quickly...the lower the temperature the faster and more dense it forms.

Eric

 

[millerbuilds]

If you choose to use fatwood follow these directions.

 1- get your fire going

2- add food to fire

3- add the fatwood to the fire keeping 2 extra peices

4- coat your last 2 peices of fat wood with rub and set aside

5- when the meat is finished, throw the meat away and eat the 2 pieces of fatwood.

Don't worry I have a real job and don't plan a career in comedy :)

In all seriousness the posts about about the high content of resin in wood makes for horrible tasting food.

Smoke ON!