Smoking chicken for 3+ hours

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~kev~

StickBurners
Original poster
Jan 21, 2008
12
10
Texas
One of the problems I have run into with slow cooking chicken, the chicken gets "too" smoked with a 3+ hour cook time. The skin has a juicy layer of black on it that makes it a little messy to eat. The average cook time for my chicken is at least 3 hours at around 225 degrees.

The wood is usually a combination of red oak, pen oak and pecan.

To get around this black layer, I started smoking the chicken for about an hour and a half. Then moving the chicken into a pan covered with foil for another hour and a half and maybe a little more.

My wife and I usually get a bag of leg quarters, separate the leg from the thigh, season and put on the grill.

The pit, with the storage shed in the back ground. The chicken is in the blue pot ready to be put on.


Chicken just put on the grill



Smoked for about an hour and a half - notice the pork roast on the left hand side of the grill. That will be a different post.


The chicken was then put into a foil pan, sealed and cooked for another hour and a half.

This is the end result.


After 3+ hours of cook time, the fat in the chicken has desolved into juice. When you eat this chicken, the juices come running out.
 
I would say if you feel the chicken is "too smoked", I would back off on the wood some. Pecan and citrus woods are good for chicken and will not over do the smoke. oak may be alittle strong. I like to spray the chicken with a 50/50 mix of canola and lemon juice. Never have seen a black skinned bird that way, just a beautiful golden color.
 
i would say use this method. that looks like some incredible chicken quarters imho. if they taste half as good as they look in those pics, I bet your going to be pleased.
 
Well, with that stickburner, the only ways to reduce the smoke flavor is 1) Reduce total cooking time or 2) reduce time exposed to the smoke. You accomplished #2 handily. #1 means raise your temps to the 275° + range.
 
Kev, low & slow is not the way to do chicken. Raise your temp. I do mine at 350° and always get crispy skin and moist meat. I also cook to temp with a remote thermometer and the probe in the thickest part of the meat. I rub them with EVOO and sprinkle on some rub, not a lot.
Sometimes I spray the chix with a mix of EVOO, bourbon and a bit of Louisiana Hot Sauce.
Yours certainly look good in your pics. The black coating you are getting is incomplete combustion. Smoke is nothing more than micro carbonaceous particles suspended in air. The more micro the better, hence the term "thin blue smoke". The heavier the smoke the less "micro".
 
Or, preburn the wood. It uses alot more, but nearly eliminates the risk of bad tastes. It's the way we always cooked whole hog.
 
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