Hints for first smoked chicken

Well I'm really glad that your smoking abilities are growing. Now for your chicken I would smoke it whole too. I do them all the time. I like mine just straight in the grates. I keep my smoker at about 280*-320* and let the chicken go to maybe 165* or so in the breast. Then I would foil it and let it rest for a a half an hour or so. then you will have some fine tasty and very juicy too. Now for your prep I would look in the wiki section here and find Tip's Slaughter House Brine and use that one. It's really good and makes the bird really juicy too. OK for your time I would say maybe 3 hours or so less if you chop it up. Then you can rub your bird with any good rub that you like. If you look into the wiki here again for rubs you will find a bunch of them and you can always get Jeff's rub and sauce and yes it's that good and it helps this place stay in business. So go smoke you some yard bird and don't forget the Qview for us out here for we are crazy about that stuff.

I second the Slaughterhouse Brine, Rub, and Sprtiz. I pull the skin loose and rub with butter and cajun seasoning, put the skin back and rub the outside of it with butter and cajan seasoning also.  I set it on the beer can stand with a whole onion peeled sitting in the neck.  Tuck the wings back so they dont turn to charcoal.   I smoke mine about 250 degrees til it hits 170 in the breast and 185 in the thighpit.  If you want it crisp, then crank you heat up the last half hour and you will be golden :)  I do the same for turkeys also.  Good Luck and enjoy. 

If you want crispy skin, you'll have to use higher heat, like around 350° or higher. Poultry doesn't benefit from low & slow like some other meats. .I've insered a pic of some high heat chicks I did at 375°, the one with the burnt wings is for Gloria, she likes it real toasted (burnt)

in my WSM 18.5" when cooking a whole beer can chicken, I dump a chimney of unlit charcoal in the ring and then I dump one chimney of lit charcoal on top.  I keep all the vents 100% open and the temp will stay at 325*-375* which is the perfect temp range to get crispy skin (Also no water in the water pan).  I am a big fan of Famous Dave's Rib Rub on poultry at the moment (it has a lot of onion and garlic powder). 

Also, I second ballagh's recomendation to tuck the wings back if you plan on eating them.

Good Luck with your smoke!

Oh yeah and one really important thing... DON'T USE TOO MUCH SMOKE!  poultry takes on the smoke flavor a lot easier then butts or briskets.  Just use one medium chunk of wood and you wont regret it.

2-3 hrs is average for a chicken, and like Reichl said just leave the water out of the water pan. That will get your temps up over 300° no problem.

so is not really possibly to do this on a MES since you can't get the temps up that high?

mlrtym44 said:

so is not really possibly to do this on a MES since you can't get the temps up that high?

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You can smoke the chicken in your MES then when it is done either toss it on a hot grill for a few minutes or put it under the broiler in your oven. You only need 5-10 minutes, just to crisp the skin.

Yes smoked whole chicken is great i do them all the time as well.. I smoke mine around 230 give or take few degrees cook time can change do to outdoor temp and wind so have a good meat thermometer handy. I pull it off the smoker when it hits around 180° F. here is a pic of my last one....

Is that a custom made chicken rack?

I've personally found more success splitting whole chickens into halves - particuarly if you want "crisper" skin.  Why?  Because I like to smoke 'em low and slow (until around ~130 in the breast) and then finish them over a VERY high heat grill (as high as you can go without burning - trial by error here!) with the skin side UP.

By the way, brining certainly helps prevent drying out with this technique (but watch the salt level - not enough can be saved with good sauce/seasoning after the cook, but too salty of a brine and dinner is RUINED).  Only other thing I might point out - if you've been smoking ribs/butts/brisket, I'd warn that chicken/turkey needs FAR less smoke (1/2 or even less of the logs/chunks/chips you've been using for those other cuts).  I also tend to think mesquite doesn't work very well with poultry - apple, oak, or hickory is the way to go (and in that order, best to "worst").  ;-)

P.S. Take it to ~165 degrees internal in the breast over the high heat grill.

Those look pretty dang good!

Darren

I have did a few chickens myself that way.  What I did was rub the chicken with a rub and shot the chickens up with some melted butter and seasonings.  Put the chickens in the smoker for 20 to 30 mins at 400 degrees, that will give you a crispy outside of chicken.  Then you put the smoker on 250 degrees.  Dont know how long I do not keep a time on the chickens.  I have a meat thermometer to say whens is done.. Good luck and let me know how they come out..

alelover said:

Is that a custom made chicken rack?

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I do not want to speak fo rthe orig poster but I have one just like it from Cabella's 

Well guys,

I did my first smoking attempt last night.  I smoked two chickens.  I will send the pics later when I figure out how to do it. Here are the details as best I remember:

I have a charbroiler offset firebox smoker that I just put together last weekend.  My first smoker. I put about a chimney starter worth of un-lit charcoal briquettes on the bottom of a box I made.  Then I added a few apple wood chips. (they were soaked for about an hour in water.) Then I added a chimney starter of lit coals on top with some more chips on top of that.

I used Kingsford Charcoal briguettes because that is all I had at home and didn't have time to go to the store.

I have looked at a lot of information here on this fabulous forum, and it helped me tremendously.  From rubs to the way to cook the chickens.

I decided to cut the chickens in half and put them in the smoker skin side up like some of you have suggested.  I did put a water container close to the firebox for added moisture, again, like some of you have suggested.

I had the chickens in the smoker for 4 hours exactly. They came out looking very good and tasting very good.  However, I did have some problems.

I could not get the temp to go up past 300 in the smoker.  Also, I didn't get the chicken breast temp up to 165.  I could only get it up to 124.  Don't know why.

I tried not to peak, but being my first time, it was very hard to resist, not only for the chicken part, but because I had a temp gauge inside the smoker, and wanted to know what the temp was inside.  I have to get another temp gauge. 

I also had to keep adding coals into the firebox, as I could see the temp fall dramatically after about an hour and a half.  I tried to do the minion method of charcoaling, but for some reason, the temp would only go up to 300 near the firebox, and 200 or so at the other end of the smoker.

I really couldn't relax and have a cold one inside because I was worried about the temp of the smoker and chicken.  Don't know what I did wrong.

I took the chicken out after 4 hours in the smoker and had to put in the oven for about 30 minutes to get the chicken cooked up right.  That bothered me a bit.

I did not brine the chicken because I don't have a container big enough for two chickens or the space in the fridge for brining.  I understand it has to be kept cold for brining.  So I decided to just rub some oil and butter and a dry rub on them instead. 

The flavor came out great, and it looked really good too, it's just that the temps were giving me hell.

Any suggestions and replys would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Big "R"