yardbird
Meat Mopper
I do a LOT of poultry in my smoker. Don't use water in the water pan. Right now I have a turkey in my smoker and the water pan is empty. I wrapped a few bricks in foil and stuck them in there for thermal mass. You can also just put foil in your water pan, fill it with sand and then close up the foil. I've also found that you can cook poultry at higher temps. The turkey is cooking at 350 but I've run poultry through as high as 400. I get better smoke at around 350 and I get crispy skin.
Part of the reason you don't see a lot of smoked poultry served in restaurants is because of the pink you're describing. Poultry from the smoker isn't grey like it is from an oven. It's a bit pink looking and near the bone can be red, but it still falls off the bone. And customers equate that pink to their normal thinking of it not being done. Cook to TEMPERATURE. And if it's early, pull it about 5 degrees shy of where you want it to finish, foil it, stuff it in a cooler, and it will finish coming to temp in the cooler.
I agree with everyone about making certain your thermometers are accurate. My Maverick is just over a year old and I just re-checked it to make sure. It's spot on. When using the smoker, you have to be a little flexible in terms of time because you cook to temperature and every piece of meat, whether it's poultry, pork, beef or even meatloaf, has its own personality. I've had 2 identical weight roasting chickens finish a half an hour apart. AND I had rotated their positions in the smoker specifically to try to avoid that. :)
Put the meat in early, as you can keep it warm for a REALLY long time wrapped in foil and stuffed into a clean cooler with towels taking up any air space. I had 30 pounds of leg quarters in foil pans, wrapped in towels, and 3 hours later when you opened a pan, they were still too hot to hold in your bare hand.
Part of the reason you don't see a lot of smoked poultry served in restaurants is because of the pink you're describing. Poultry from the smoker isn't grey like it is from an oven. It's a bit pink looking and near the bone can be red, but it still falls off the bone. And customers equate that pink to their normal thinking of it not being done. Cook to TEMPERATURE. And if it's early, pull it about 5 degrees shy of where you want it to finish, foil it, stuff it in a cooler, and it will finish coming to temp in the cooler.
I agree with everyone about making certain your thermometers are accurate. My Maverick is just over a year old and I just re-checked it to make sure. It's spot on. When using the smoker, you have to be a little flexible in terms of time because you cook to temperature and every piece of meat, whether it's poultry, pork, beef or even meatloaf, has its own personality. I've had 2 identical weight roasting chickens finish a half an hour apart. AND I had rotated their positions in the smoker specifically to try to avoid that. :)
Put the meat in early, as you can keep it warm for a REALLY long time wrapped in foil and stuffed into a clean cooler with towels taking up any air space. I had 30 pounds of leg quarters in foil pans, wrapped in towels, and 3 hours later when you opened a pan, they were still too hot to hold in your bare hand.
