Hello from Alabama

Hey Tony, welcome to SMF!  Glad you are here with the new toy and wanting to put it good use.

Advice?  We're full of it!  My first thought for your issues, both with the butts and the poultry, is temperature.  Pick up a cheap, metal oven thermometer at the grocery store, the kind you put on a grate in your oven to check the temperature.  Put in in your smoker where you normally smoke meat.  Then fire up your smoker and get the installed gauge to the point you normally smoke meat, then check your grate gauge.  Because your installed gauge is at the top of your smoker, the temp on the grate could be 50 to 100F cooler! 

Butts are the most forgiving piece of meat on the planet, unless they are undercooked.  Personally I've smoked them between 225F and 425F and they came out great.  Time was the only real issue.  Once you get your grate temp up into a decent range, say 250-275F, your butt issues will go away.

Chicken skin.  Once again, temperature.  The ONLY way to get bite through, non-rubbery chicken skin is higher temperatures.  You need 275F plus on the grate.  325-350F is better.  You can smoke them at a lower temp initially, say 225-250F, but when they are within 25-30F below your target temp of 165F, crank the heat up high, even over 400F.  You need to melt the layer of fat beneath the skin and break down the collagen in the skin to get that crispy, bite through skin. 

Keep us posted on your success!

Ray

Welcome Tony! These guys are full of info and support. I've learned a lot from their postings even when I'm not the one asking the question or they're simply sharing their expertise. Great to meet new members.

  Good afternoon and welcome to the forum from a cloudy and warm day here in East Texas, and the best site on the web. Lots of          great people with tons of information on just about everything.

        Gary

Tony from AL said:

 
Hi, I'm Tony and I hope this post is in the correct location...

I have a Oklahoma Joe's Longhorn 1060 Sq.-in Charcoal Horizontal Smoker and 2 Weber kettle grills.  I had a bullet (vertical) smoker for years then upgraded a couple years ago.

Any ways, I've come here hoping that y'all will share some super-secret smoking tips with me cause I'm still only having moderate success with my smoker.

Meat I smoke pretty good: Butts, loins, ribs and sausages (still have some failure with the butts)

Meat I don't have such good luck with: Any and all poultry - the skin never comes out right or even eatable TBH.

Any who, hope to meet some of y'all soon...

See yuns soon (hopefully),

T

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Welcome Tony !   Well you found the right SMF to get yourself all schooled up!   For Poultry I prefer to use a  BBQ basket to help protect the skin from any extra handling while cooking. 

Posting pics of your of your process also helps other members spot things you may be overlooking? Don't be shy and jump right in and ask if you have any problems finding something, someone is sure to spot it and jump in to help you!