New here. What a great site. I posted this in the Propane section, but it seems like this is a better place...
This might get wordy, lol:
Ok, since it was my first attempt, and I'm trying to figure out this "smoker thing", 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. You could definitely taste the smoke (I used Hickory) which was awesome!
I used a ThermoPro dual probe thermometer which I'm glad I got 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!
This might get wordy, lol:
Ok, since it was my first attempt, and I'm trying to figure out this "smoker thing", 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. You could definitely taste the smoke (I used Hickory) which was awesome!
I used a ThermoPro dual probe thermometer which I'm glad I got 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!