First MES smoke - Beer Chicken - Qview of course!

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kumatae

Fire Starter
Original poster
Jul 3, 2012
39
12
OC for now
My first smoke in the MES.  Former WSM owner and I'm never going back!!  I love how I could just throw the meat in and just go ahead and do my thing.  So I was painting the bathroom all day.  I started the day by brining the chicken in vinegar, brown sugar, few spices and water.  After few hours, I started to warm up the smoker.  Drank half of the coors light, added some garlic in there.  My rub had some random spices I found in the kitchen.  Coated the chicken in olive oil.  Got my AMNPS and started the fire using pitmaster.  BTW, the AMNPS is a god send, had perfect burns yesterday on a trial and today as well.  Just filled one row since I don't plan to smoke that long.  Went in to the smoker at about 245F and smoke for about 3 hours or so.  Meanwhile, I'm going to town on my walls and priming the heck out.  I check around 2:30 and my thermometer said it needs a little bit more time.  The breast was so juicy, way better than costco rotisserie.  Oh yeah, I need to know how to get the skin crispy.  It was all rubbery, but it was good cause we don't really eat the skin anyways.  Everything was just so easy, I can't wait to smoke some more.  The AMNPS had burned all the way through. 

I made the mistake of taking out the water pan, but I realized why you would want it - my element housing got the drippings.  I'll make that mental note for next week.  But you are supposed to take out the wood tray and chip loader, right?

I can't wait to start making my own jerky and my pregnant wife wants ribs next weekend!!




 
Just pull the chip tray out about an inch and a half or so, and the chip loader out a couple inches, then once the amnps gets going real good, you can push the loader all the way in to reduce the airflow a bit and get longer burn times.
 
Glad your first smoke went well! As far as crispy skin goes, I like to do poultry at a higher temp. Usually around 275. It won't be as crispy as grilling or oven baking at 350 but should give bite through instead of rubbery pull off skin.
 
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With the electrics like the MES that don't produce high temps  you have to put the chicken on a really hot grill or under a broiler for a few minutes to crisp up the skin.
 
Your Bird looks great and as others posted Broiler or Grill and I'll add 425*F Oven to get Crisp Skin. Just put the Bird in the Oven when the IT is 10*F shy of Done and let it finish cooking...JJ
 
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