smoking chicken leg quarters and bone in breasts on a Brinkman electric smoker??

http://www.wyntk.us/food/smoking-tim...eratures.shtml

Temp/Time table, but remember nothing is exact and that you should always go by temps not time.

I have a Masterbuilt electric smokehouse and I smoked some leg quarters tonight. The meat was moist and juicy and tasted good but the skin wasn't fit to eat. I could've made wallets out of the skin it was so tough. I set the temp at 200 and cooked them to an internal temp of 180. It took almost 3 hours and I used hickory. If I had set the temp at 250 and cooked them to an internal temp of 167 as the guide says, would the skin have turned out better? I had this problem when I smoked some Johnsonville brats.

The reason I had set the temp at 200 was because I had put a meat thermometer in the smoker when I seasoned it, and there was about a 25 degree difference between the smokers thermometer and the meat thermometer. I'm assuming that the digital meat thetmometer was more accurate than the smoker so I've been cooking at 200 degrees assuming the temp was closer to 225. I'm having my doubts now and should probably just go with the smokers temps. I'm wanting to smoke some turkey legs and don't want to run into this problem again. Also, I like a smoky flavor but my wife prefers a more subtle smoke flavor. Would apple or oak be a better alternative than hickory? Any advice would be great. Thanks -Larry

Glad to give ya some help Larry, could you post the question in a new thread in the electric smoker section?
You're more likely to get the answers you're looking for that way, and when you get a chance stop by roll call and introduce yourself so we can get to know you a little better.