Accidental chicken jerky??

[stephenislegend]

Hey guys (and gals). Long story short, wife picked up an mes 30 for Christmas and I reluctantly kept it as I'm normally an offset charcoal/wood guy. But I liked the idea of set it and forget it. Last night was my first smoke on it. After an initial trial run I noticed a 20-30 degree difference between the smoker temp gauge and my maverick dual probe. I set the smoker to 215 which maintained 225-245 on the Maverick, started my amazn pellet maze and threw on some chicken breasts and a roast. Idk what the deal was, but it took 5 hours to get those dang chicken breasts to 165. 5 hrs!! By the time the chicken hit 165 they were more like chicken pucks. A jerky of sorts. Waaaaay dry. The roast finished in about the same time, and I pulled it off at 144, wrapped it and let rest. It was juicy and tasted great. But I cannot for the life of me figure out what went wrong. The only thing that makes sense to me is maybe the smoker temp guage is more accurate and the Maverick is off, which means I cooked at much to low a temp for far too long?? Idk. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[wild west]

Wow 5 hrs is crazy long. I've checked the Temps in different spots inside my mes 30 cabinet and found as much as 30* difference from top to bottom as well as front to back.

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Have you tested your Maverick therms lately?

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/...is-212-f-an-accurate-measure-of-boiling-water

I test my remote therms monthly.

 

[SmokinAl]

Yes something is not right there, but I would pull those breasts off at 157 & rest them on the counter for 15-20 minutes.

The carryover cooking will bring them up to 165. 

Also breasts do tend to dry out, so a good poultry brine would help with that.

Did you have the Mav right on the grate by the chicken?

As said above there can be large temp differences from top to bottom & front to back.

Al

 

[chef jimmyj]

Check the MAV in boiling water....JJ

 

[stephenislegend]

Thanks for the tips. Will def test Maverick in boiling water when I get home today. I had chicken on top rack and Maverick guage on middle rack where the roast was. The meat probe went out at the beginning of the cook, so I'm wondering if the Maverick is dying. Idk. I've never cooked the life out of chicken like I did yesterday. Gotta figure out how to get this thing cooking right. On the up side, the amazn pellet maze worked awesome! Lol