Chicken Thighs in new smoker - QView

[jcfullbr]

First time with the new smoker from Wally World, decided on two pretty simple things:

Chicken Thighs (1/4 with just salt and pepper, 1/4 with creole seasoning, 1/4 with old bay, 1/4 with salt and pepper and wrapped in leftover bacon)

and

Bacon wrapped meatballs

All loaded up (way too soon, but I will get to that in a minute):

I chose two very forgiving items for the first smoke, and I learned a whole lot about the unit. I did not let it get up to temperature for very long, and left the door open for way too long while loading.

The unit struggled getting about 200 degrees with the top vent wide open and the temp gauge on high. I opened the bottom box a bit and this helped.... but it eventually led to a huge flare up and caught the chips on fire. Need to use a drip pan next time? 

Once I got that under control I manage to keep it around 275 for the duration, and the end product was very tasty!

Will hopefully do another easy smoke this week (fattie and some ABTs?) and also tackle something bigger this weekend.

Pictures would've been better if my photographer hadn't been at work.

edited to make pictures smaller

 

[flash]

Well, photos are huge so cannot comment on some items since I cannot see them. As to top vent, this should always be open as it allows your smoke to escaped. The lower vents are what you work with. Is this a Propane GOSM? Always use you drip pan/water pan also, otherwise you are basically just grilling. Surprised though if you could not get much above 200º though.

 

[mballi3011]

I'm with Flash where is the water pan??? Now I have a smaller GOSM like you and mine has one. But everything looks like it came out all right thou. So what are you gonna smoke the next time.??

 

[jcfullbr]

The water pan surrounds the wood chips, it is tough to see in the picture.

If the weather allows I will probably do a fattie and some ABTs and/or more meatballs one evening this week and probably some ribs and wings this weekend. I have successfully done ribs before, so I won't be learning a new "food" and the unit at the same time. I spent about 3 hours drooling over the fattie section of the forum today :)

Sorry about the original picture sizes - they were enormous.

 

[flash]

Much better, but you can go bigger than that too. Must be atleast a 10 meg camera for those originals.

How was the skin on the chicken? Rubbery? If you do like to eat it, you can always finish the chicken off on a hot grill. I use my gas grill for that and it crisp them up real good....not that I should be eating the skin.

 

[smokey mo]

eat the skin,,,waste not-want not. Right?