Chicken Smoking Experiment

[Nefarious]

I am just trying to sort out how to manage my smoker, and get some good food to eat in the process. I don't have any pictures, I was half through with the emergency dinner wife had to make because this cook took too long.I

I butchered the chicken by thirdeye's technique, cutting so white meat and dark meat are in individual pieces. i wet brined the butchered chicken for 2 hours in 1/4 cup of salt and brown sugar in half gallon of water. I put the dark meat in smoker first and smoked until IT was 100°. This took about 30 minutes at 220°. I then put the white meat in to figure out where the two would cross. I tried to keep the smoker at 220° but the tank ran out and had to be changed.

The two pieces crossed at IT of 152° after 3 hours of combined time in the smoker. The dark meat was in the smoker for 3.5 hours. It took another 20 minutes to get to IT of 160°, rested in foil for 15 minutes then immediately in the refrigerator so I could finish dinner.

This morning I tasted the chicken, and it is very dried out, not so much that I wont eat it, but I know for a fact wife won't. I will take some pictures to add here later.

What did I learn? Don't do this again.

 

[JLeonard]

At 220 degrees the skin on your chicken is gonna be very rubbery. I cook chicken in the 300-325 degree range. And chicken soaks up smoke. So its gonna be very smokey flavored if you have smoke going for the whole cook. Also what are you using to check your ITs? I cant see chicken taking that long to reach 160 degrees.
Jim

 

[Nefarious]

At 220 degrees the skin on your chicken is gonna be very rubbery. I cook chicken in the 300-325 degree range. And chicken soaks up smoke. So its gonna be very smokey flavored if you have smoke going for the whole cook. Also what are you using to check your ITs? I cant see chicken taking that long to reach 160 degrees.
Jim

I use a ThermPro wireless thermometer. I put one probe in the smoker to monitor smoker.temp, and a probe in each piece of the chicken.

I am not doing this to cook chicken, it isnt my favorite. I'm trying to understand how to get the correct smoke and control the temp for the meat. Chicken is just supposed to take less time and cost less so when I mess up the damage is constrained.

 

[JLeonard]

What cooker are you using?
Jim

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

Dry chicken is overcooked chicken especially white meat such as chicken breast.
Have you calibrated your probes using boiling water and ice water to ensure they are accurate?
Also, I usually take dark meat to an IT of around 175°- ish and it has never been dry when either smoking or grilling.
For what it's worth, I smoke a lot of yardbird quarters and drums and thighs at 225° and have never had them reach 100° IT in 30 minutes either.

 

[Nefarious]

What cooker are you using?
Jim

Smoke Vault 18

 

[Nefarious]

Dry chicken is overcooked chicken especially white meat such as chicken breast.
Have you calibrated your probes using boiling water and ice water to ensure they are accurate?
Also, I usually take dark meat to an IT of around 175°- ish and it has never been dry when either smoking or grilling.
For what it's worth, I smoke a lot of yardbird quarters and drums and thighs at 225° and have never had them reach 100° IT in 30 minutes either.

I just ate a leg quarter and it was not dry. Moist and very good tasting, maybe too much smoke. And, the skin was very rubbery as mentioned.

I kept a log of the timing every 15 minutes and went over it several times this morning. There is no way it can be off by over an hour, so timing is correct. I will check the probe calibration.

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

I just ate a leg quarter and it was not dry. Moist and very good tasting, maybe too much smoke. And, the skin was very rubbery as mentioned.

I kept a log of the timing every 15 minutes and went over it several times this morning. There is no way it can be off by over an hour, so timing is correct. I will check the probe calibration.

Poulty does take on smoke quickly as JLeonard (Jim) mentioned above. Also if you are just venturing into smoking meat and not accustomed to smoke flavor it might seem to taste too smokey at first. With this in mind, limit the amount of time chicken spends in the smoke to 30 to 60 minutes.
Yes, definitely check the probes for accuracy. Just be sure not to get the cable to probe connection point wet as it will ruin the probe.