chicken temp question

mcp9

Meat Mopper

Original poster

Jan 31, 2008

177

10

Foley, AL

• Feb 28, 2008

• #1

i did 2 beer can chickens this past weekend. maintaind 225* for exactly 2 hours. chicken was done and great. this site says that that a whole chicken should be cooked for 4 hours. anybody have any suggestions?

 

fatback joe

Master of the Pit

OTBS Member

Jun 13, 2007

2,763

14

Hampden, MA

• Feb 28, 2008

• #2

Take the internal temp of the meat, when it is done it is done, the time doesn't matter much other than planning on when you are going to eat. Regardless of the cooking temps, you will have other factors on the time primarily the size of the birds and what there internal temps were to begin with (completely thawed vs partiallly frozen) etc.

Also, how confident are you that your thermometer reading of 225 was the actual cooking temp?

 

mcp9

Meat Mopper

Original poster

Thread starter

Jan 31, 2008

177

10

Foley, AL

• Feb 28, 2008

• #3

i like to think that the gauge was right, especially since it is a brand new grill. but say it was a lot hotter than expected. would the chicken been as juicy as it was? internall temp was spot on also. that was the deciding factor. thanks for the input.

 

fatback joe

Master of the Pit

OTBS Member

Jun 13, 2007

2,763

14

Hampden, MA

• Feb 28, 2008

• #4

I don't know what you are cooking on, but the guages on most cooker are notoriously poor and even if they are accurate, they are usually mounted in the wrong place to be of much use.

In any case, hotter would still be plenty juicy. Quite a few folks around here (me being one of them) cook chicken at over 300.

If I had to guess, I would say you were running hotter than you thought you were.

Edit - I see what you were cooking on by your auto sig. and am even more confident now that you were running hotter than you thought.

 

geek with fire

Master of the Pit

OTBS Member

Aug 5, 2007

1,089

17

Rural out-skirts of Sedalia, MO

• Feb 28, 2008

• #5

I very much agree with Joe. On my chargriller, when the smoking chamber is running at 225, the stock thermo reads 150.

 

smok'n steve

Smoking Fanatic

OTBS Member

SMF Premier Member

Jan 11, 2008

921

14

Maine

• Feb 28, 2008

• #6

Beer Can Chicken cooks much faster because the bird is standing up allowing the heat to reach all around the bird as well as inside the bird. I do 14 pound turkeys this way in 3 1/2 hours at 275!!

This is why they are so juicy, the breasts don't have time to dry out!!

As long as the thighs are a safe temp, I never let the breasts go any higher than 165:-)

Steve