A couple of Firsts

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jseiber

Fire Starter
Original poster
Dec 10, 2007
72
10
Clinton Tennessee
This past Saturday I smoked some chickens on a UDS. I kept reading about them, and loving to tinker with things I just had to build one. (I copied Bubba's design)The smoker worked really well and was it easy to control the temps. Using the smoker was one of the firsts. The other was using an aluminum pan under the chickens to catch all the grease. I didn't want to have all that stuff in the bottom of the smoker. Anyway, The smoke went ok, but as you can see from the picture, the bottom of the birds didn't get much smoke at all. I did have them sitting on a muffin pan to hold them up out of the mess, but I still had limited success as far as smoke. And my smoker was running between 250 & 275 for most of the cooking time.

chickens_080419.jpg
 
The taste was good. I did forget to mention a six hour bath in a simple Kosher Salt / Sugar brine. Plus I was using hickory chunks for smoke.

I think next time, I will just put them on the rack and clean up the mess later.
 
Looks good to me. Do you have a lower shelf? You could put a grease trap under them if the lack of smoke bothers you.
Them thar chickens look good to me though!
 
I don't have a lower shelf yet, but I'm planning to add a baffle over the fire basket. I guess I could make a baffle that would serve as a grease trap.
 
since you've already built your UDS, it shouldn't take but a couple minutes and a few bucks to install a lower grate for a catch pan if you want. But its my understanding that the grease is suppoded to fall onto the coals and burn off, leaving no mess to clean. But I'm not positive because my UDS isn't complete yet.
 
John: those are some good lookin birds. I do chickens two ways, either use a beer can rack, (or a beer can!) and set them upright or I place them in meat netting and hang them. The netting gives the unique old school look on the birds. Good luck and keep smokin!
 
they look good. but the worry about the bottom not looking brown from the smokin..turn the byrds over half way thru the smoke. that should even out the color..spritz them with bourbon and maple syrup that should help color em up also.
 
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