Bitter Skin on Smoked Chicken

So tonight I attempted a whole chicken for the second time, and I must say that I am much more pleased with tonight's results.  I started out by bringing my chicken in Tips Slaughterhouse Poultry brine recipe and soaked it for about 12 hours.  After I pulled it out of the brine, I let it sit for about 4 hours while I ran errands this afternoon.   When I got home,  I pulled the chicken out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature.  Next i put a ton of butter under the skin all over the chicken, because butter is never a bad idea.  I used some store bought rub on the outside of the bird to help with color.  Next time I will use my own rub.  The results this time were MUCH better.


This picture show my Charcoal setup, and yes I know that its too much Charcoal for a Chicken, but I am still a NEWB, so I am more comfortable with having too much.

I dumped a chimney of lit coals into the coals and let them ash over.  The wood got pretty hot and was on fire for awhile as well.  The white smoke above formed and eventually calmed down to what we see below.

You cant really see it in the picture, but I did manage to get thin blue smoke for awhile. It died out pretty early though and my meat wasn't very smokey. I think I let the pendulum swing too far in the other direction and didn't quite get the smoke flavor i was looking for.



Raw Chicken going on the grill.

Chicken coming off the Grill.

Final Product.

Since the coals were hot, I went ahead and put some stuffed peppers on the grill.  They came out great, but the bacon wasn't cripsy enough, so they eventually went under the broiler for 8 minutes.

I deserved this beer.

Setup:
18.5 Inch WSM.
More Charcoal than nescesary
1 Lit chimney, waited for coals to ash over
Dry water pan

Recipe:
Tips Slaughterhouse Brine
Butter under the skin
Commercial rub on the outside


The chicken didn't have enough smoke this time, but it tasted MUCH better than last time.  Also, my skin seemed kinda rubery, any recommendations to crisp it up?  I cooked at around 300 for the whole cook but for the last 30 minutes kicked it up to 350.  The whole cook took around 2:20.  The smoker held temps great, and actually when I opened up the vents to get the temps up to 350 it didnt respond but after i kicked the leg and gently coerced some ash to fall, it climbed fast.

Sorry the pictures are sideways, I will fix them in the Morning.

REDWOOD CARLOS said:

 
Well congrats on the better tasting bird. You now have a target range to aim for. Less bad smoke than the first and more smoke than the last. Yay!

A few things to consider for your next smoke...Check your thermometer to ensure it is accurate(boiling water and ice water). Plus the 300 is a dome temp where the smoker is the hottest. Check it at grate level if at all possible. and don't be afraid to add more smoke. A chunk or two here and there is fine to do. I used to wrap my chips in tin foil then poke holes in it. The lack of oxygen kept the chips from going full on flame but still smoked through the holes.

When I cook a whole chicken on the WSM I will light the coals and leave them burning without the middle or lid with the bottom vents wide open. After getting good and hot I assemble the rest and leave the top vent open. imo you can't get too hot for chicken on a wsm, as long as your rub does not contain sugar.

Also why breast side down?

Click to expand...

The only way that I verified the dome temp was somewhat accurate was by using a meat thermometer in the temperature probe pot on the side.  They were both within the same temp ranges, so my dome thermometer may be 20 degrees or so off, but its giving me the grate temperature.  I bought an ET-732 last week and it just got here today.  I will now be able to see how much of a difference there is.

The chicken is breast side down because this is only the 2nd whole chicken I have ever cooked, and I wanted to see how it would turn out.  The meat turned out great, but I am excited to put this ET-732 to use.