First time chicken smoke

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jongonz70

Fire Starter
Original poster
Sep 5, 2010
39
14
So Cal
Hey All,

Today i got a bug to smoke some meat up. i decided to buy a whole chicken and give it a go. ive never don a chicken before but what the heck right? gotta start sometime. because it was on a whim i didnt brine my chicken but instead just threw a dry rub on it and let that set in for a little while then i stuck a second coat of rub on the skin and threw it in the smoker. the rub i hope will be good cuz i kind of just threw it together. here are its ingredients, Paprika, black pepper, celery salt, sugar, onion powder, mustard, cayenne pepper, a pinch of salt, and some lemon zest. i cant remember if i heard these ingredients from somewhere or not but for some reason this is what was stuck in my head to put on a chicken. i tasted it and it was delicious so i threw it on the chicken. then i got some octoberfest beer and put it in a can and along with a lemoni shoved it into the rear end of the chicken. now its sittin in the smoker that has cherry wood in it for the smoke. wish me luck on taste. hehe.

Here is a pic of the 6.5 pound chicken

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Here is one of chicken with rub on beer can stand

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and the most recent is the smokey goodness we all know and love. 

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i hope this turns out good. 
 
i'm no Kreskin, but i can already tell you it's going to be great!

you're in for a treat! 

your rub sounds excellent!  only suggestion i have is maybe sneak some of it under the skin where it can sort of flavor the meat, too!
 
Looking good so far, I've done many a chick w/out brining. Personally, I don't brine because it changes the texture of the meat, but I know many others enjoy a brined bird. It's all good my friend.
 
Sorry for the delay on my "Money Shot" as realtorterry so wonderfully put it. hehe. imma use that one in the future. unfortunately, work gets in the way of completing things from time to time.

@Wntrlnd- i happened to have put sum of the rub underneath the skin, but thanks for catching that one. i know in the future i will forget a detail like that and its good to hear that the kind folks of this forum help out and mention those things to others.

lets just say this was by far the juiciest most tender and flavorful chicken my girlfriend and i have ever sunken our teeth into. by far it blew wayyyyyyyyy past the stuff you get from Lucilles BBQ. I dont know if a brine would have been much to add to it (since its the best chicken i have tasted i cant imagine anything being better
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), but since i have never tried it b4 i will have to try the brine and ill try injecting it with garlic butter. DANG I LOVE SMOKING MEAT!!! here is the final pic of the bird. She gave her life for me to enjoy stuffin rub in and on her. Let's just say it was the best funeral you could give to the bird. 

Pic of final product.

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My only complaint is that the skin was not crispy how we like it. any one know how to get it nice and crispy. ive heard of puttin it on the grill but how hot and for how long? do i take the bird off b4 it is fully cooked from the smoker? Thanks all!

And this was quite a treat!
 
To get crispy skin just bump the temp up at the end. You can smoke the chicken at whatever temp you want. Just for the last 10 min or so, open your vents up and let it hit 350-400 and youll get your skin crisp. You have to be careful not to let that dry your chicken out though. Ive done it before and left it there for 20+ min while i was sidetracked and dried em out.
 
Good job on your first chicken!!  After ribs, poultry is my favorite smoked meat. I've done the brine vs. no brine test and for me... I'm a brine guy 100% of the time. I've never had a dry chicken after I let it soak in a brine over night. Rishoso1 is right though... "it's all good". Also, as mentioned above. You can take that temp up. Poultry doesn't benefit from low and slow at all. I do the whole cook start to finish with a target temp of 325. It can drop down to 300 or spike to 350 but anywhere in that range and I'm fine. Like I said, never a dry bird when i brine and the skin is just right.
 
^^^ what they said for crispy skin.  Also, if you can't get your smoker to 300*+ (like me -- my MES only goes to 275*) or if you don't want to fire up the grill (you should really do that, though) then you can put it in the oven under the broiler to crisp up the skin.  Whichever way that you do it, try not to let the breast temp get above 180*.  170-180* is ideal for a whole bird.

Brining: some people do and some people don't.  Personally, I brine because I've tried it both ways and I prefer the taste, moisture, and texture that come with brining.  If you want to try it, there are a couple of great brining recipes in the WIKI:  Tip's Slaughterhouse is a site favorite and I've used the one from here several times and loved it.

The bird looked great, btw -- thanks for sharing the Q-view!
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Best thing for a rub is whatever YOU like. If this was your virgin yardbird and it came out great, imagine the next,next,next, get where I'm going? Tell us what smoker you have and folks will give more info to get that crispy skin.
 
 Personally, I don't brine because it changes the texture of the meat, but I know many others enjoy a brined bird. It's all good my friend.
yer right about the texture, but a lot of people use too stong of brine for way to long........................
 
Thank you all for your advice! im going to take a look at those brines and in fact i think tomorrow will be my second bird. i will take pics again and post em in a new thread. i love smoking meat. this time i will try to put the temp up in my smoker at the end to get sum crispy skin. I LOVE THIS FORUM!!!! 
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I did one yesterday at 215 til it hit 160 IT then bumped it up to 300 til it was at 170 IT. I think you can smoke much hotter, like 250 or so to make it cook faster, but I was going to be gone a few hours while it cooked so I left it low. It turned out perfect. Falling off the bone tender and juicy with crispy skin. We had injected it with about 1/2 cup of cattleman's bbq sauce and coated it with my seasoning right before going in.
 
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