New here. What a great site. This might get wordy, lol:
Ok, so I decided I'd go with some boneless/skinless chicken breasts because they're cheap and won't require the time ribs etc would. I mainly wanted to see if my smoker would hold 250deg well. When I did the initial cure, I got 400deg going so that was good. During my smoke, I seemed to be able to stay at 230 or 270, but could not nail 250.
After looking over the site, I got an 8" CI skillet and used wood chunks. That seemed to work well - I only noticed flames after I took the chicken out so I'm thinking all the air stoked the chunks b/c each time I looked at them prior, they were just smoking. I soaked them for about 30min.
The chicken came out decent. I brined them for about 2 hours and seasoned them lightly w/ various seasonings I had. The bigger pieces were better, but all had a little leathery skin on the outside. So in the future I'll flatten them out so they're all more uniform.
I used a ThermoPro dual probe thermometer which I'm glad I go b/c I'm pretty sure the MB's thermometer broke (it never went above 200deg). I had one probe in a piece of chicken and the other probe mounted to a center rack.
Overall, I think it was a good smoking experience, but I would really like to be able to lock in that 250deg. No matter how little the adjustment w/ the vents, it would just go between 230 and 270. Weird.
Would one of those adjustable regulators help? Because I was able to get such low temps, maybe I don't need that
Thanks in advance for any tips!
Ok, so I decided I'd go with some boneless/skinless chicken breasts because they're cheap and won't require the time ribs etc would. I mainly wanted to see if my smoker would hold 250deg well. When I did the initial cure, I got 400deg going so that was good. During my smoke, I seemed to be able to stay at 230 or 270, but could not nail 250.
After looking over the site, I got an 8" CI skillet and used wood chunks. That seemed to work well - I only noticed flames after I took the chicken out so I'm thinking all the air stoked the chunks b/c each time I looked at them prior, they were just smoking. I soaked them for about 30min.
The chicken came out decent. I brined them for about 2 hours and seasoned them lightly w/ various seasonings I had. The bigger pieces were better, but all had a little leathery skin on the outside. So in the future I'll flatten them out so they're all more uniform.
I used a ThermoPro dual probe thermometer which I'm glad I go b/c I'm pretty sure the MB's thermometer broke (it never went above 200deg). I had one probe in a piece of chicken and the other probe mounted to a center rack.
Overall, I think it was a good smoking experience, but I would really like to be able to lock in that 250deg. No matter how little the adjustment w/ the vents, it would just go between 230 and 270. Weird.
Would one of those adjustable regulators help? Because I was able to get such low temps, maybe I don't need that
Thanks in advance for any tips!
