Bought two Purdue roasters, each just over 7 lbs. Spatchcocked them bot for more even smoking, spayed with EVOO and rubbed one just with Montreal Chicken and other with a 50/50 mix of Dean Jacobs Savory Chicken Rub and Jerk Seasoning.
Into the smoker (MES 30) with cherry at 260 degrees.
After only one hour and 45 minutes, my Maverick probe showed the upper chicken at 154* and the MES probe showed the lower one at 151*. I didn't trust the initial temps (seemed too fast to me) so I checked both chickens with a Maverick instant read and the temps checked out, with juice coming out when the shin was penetrated.
Pulled them, put them in a pan to rest and wrapped them in foil.
It was just family so they were served with potato salad and let people carve off what they wanted (I apologize for the presentation!) Great red color from the cherry smoke!
Really moist and tasted great but, the skin wasn't as crispy as I had hoped for. I should have thrown them under a broiler for just a couple minutes but, it wasn't "rubbery" at all, just not really crisp.
It seems that food smokes faster in the MES than I'm used to in my old propane smoker and the temps are incredibly stable (but I don't trust the MES temp sensors at all, they seem to be off by somewhere from a couple degrees to just over 20 degrees (both the chamber temp and the meat probe. Don't get me wrong, I love the MES but trust my Maverick remote and instant read much more.
Into the smoker (MES 30) with cherry at 260 degrees.
After only one hour and 45 minutes, my Maverick probe showed the upper chicken at 154* and the MES probe showed the lower one at 151*. I didn't trust the initial temps (seemed too fast to me) so I checked both chickens with a Maverick instant read and the temps checked out, with juice coming out when the shin was penetrated.
Pulled them, put them in a pan to rest and wrapped them in foil.
It was just family so they were served with potato salad and let people carve off what they wanted (I apologize for the presentation!) Great red color from the cherry smoke!
Really moist and tasted great but, the skin wasn't as crispy as I had hoped for. I should have thrown them under a broiler for just a couple minutes but, it wasn't "rubbery" at all, just not really crisp.
It seems that food smokes faster in the MES than I'm used to in my old propane smoker and the temps are incredibly stable (but I don't trust the MES temp sensors at all, they seem to be off by somewhere from a couple degrees to just over 20 degrees (both the chamber temp and the meat probe. Don't get me wrong, I love the MES but trust my Maverick remote and instant read much more.
