Recent content by Mike Kilo

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  1. M

    My First Attempt!

    Trying some chicken thighs and drumsticks today. Made a brine of 12 cups water, ½ cup kosher salt and one cup brown sugar with a couple teaspoons of garlic powder, a sprinkling of thyme and rosemary and a dash of apple cider vinegar. Soaked the meat in it for about 12 hours. The meat is in the...
  2. M

    My First Attempt!

    I love your smoke hut setup!! With your recommendation and some further investigation, I picked up an ink bird four probe thermometer and am looking forward to getting to use it! Thanks!
  3. M

    My First Attempt!

    I will give that a try with my next bird!
  4. M

    My First Attempt!

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  5. M

    My First Attempt!

    Final results for today’s project. 8.14lb butt yielded 3lbs 2.5 ozs (plus some “quality control” sampling) of pulled pork. The vast majority of the meat pretty much fell apart for me in my hands as I was separating the unrendered fat out. There were a few small sections that required a bit of...
  6. M

    My First Attempt!

    Hahahahah! I’ll give you that one. Not that I haven’t heard that before…🤣😂 Ok, good tip on the vents. Will definitely give that a go next time!
  7. M

    My First Attempt!

    I have heard others say the same thing. Apparently some have a meat resting cooler used for nothing else. I’ll give that a try next time. Very much in the trying different things to figure out which I like best stage right now. Better late than never, right?!?
  8. M

    My First Attempt!

    Started poking around 196 IT and when it hit 203 it felt right to me, easy, smooth slide in and a little bit of grab pulling it back out. So, I took it out of the smoker and it is now sitting in the oven resting (oven is not turned on). Any suggestions on how long to let it rest before I start...
  9. M

    My First Attempt!

    Absolutely. It will be a tool to reassure me that my smoker is still where it should be temp wise and tell me when to start poking. 😁
  10. M

    My First Attempt!

    So, the smoke level is now back down to where it was last time. Must have just been the initial heating up of the dry chunks that caused the deluge… Apologies for the frequent posts, but I am enjoying getting to know my new hobby, lol, and everyone’s comments and advice are just adding to my...
  11. M

    My First Attempt!

    I do love Chachere’s seasoning, I will definitely hunt down the injection.
  12. M

    My First Attempt!

    Ok, after a bit more research I’ll be doing fat side down (towards the heat source). Gonna try 300 for this one. Want to eat it tonight, lol. Used roughly 50/50 applewood and mesquite chunks dry in cast iron pan. Did use water pan as I was worried about flare ups from dripping fat since I...
  13. M

    My First Attempt!

    🤣😂🤣 Let me rephrase: Fat side towards the heat (down in my vertical smoker) or away from it? And go!
  14. M

    My First Attempt!

    Fat side (and bone) up or down?
  15. M

    My First Attempt!

    Ahhhh, ok. That makes sense. I will do a 50/50 mix so I don’t run out of smoke. Soak or no soak?
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