Newbie from Austin, TX. Cheapo offset

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kittybethaustin

Newbie
Original poster
Jul 6, 2017
3
10
Austin, Texas
Just bought a very cheap horizontal offset from Home Depot. $99 on sale! So not a good one at all but at least now I can give smoking a try and see if I want to do this. Fired it up for first time 4th of July for some ribs. They had great flavor but took forever so I finished in oven. Struggled with getting tem0 over 200 but now I see that's not at all unusual with what I bought and no mods. Trying again today with just working on temp and no meat on the grill. Did the soup can trick with the pipe the smoke exits from and raised the grate in the firebox for better airflow and room for the ash to fall below. Instantly got 50 degrees more than all day on the 4th. Now I feel I can risk the two bone in chicken breasts I thawed and marinated for dinner tonight! LOL
 
Way to stick with it!  Welcome to the group!  Chicken skin needs temps around 325 to be crispy.  That will be hard to do with your offset, but you can crisp on a grill or in a hot oven after smoking!  Good to have you with us.

Mike
 
Those chicken breasts turned out pretty good. Skin got crispy enough for my second try. I did manage to get temp up to 300 for a while with addition of some pecan twigs. I do have a grill and will keep that in mind for crisping next time. I was pretty pleased with my two very simple changes to the smoker. I noticed for first time yesterday that the back of the meat chamber lid leaks smoke badly. And if it's leaking smoke it's also leaking heat. Don't know if anything can done about that.
 
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