Fired up the Kat reverse flow yesterday for some chicken and ribs.
I usually do my spare's St Louis style, but decided to go with full spares this time. Lately, I've realized that I prefer to keep things simple in regards to rubs, and mainly go with SPG on pretty much everything so the natural flavor of the meat and smoke come through more. After 3 hours in the smoke at 275 they got foil wrapped for just about 30 minutes, then sauced with a very thin layer of my own sauce and back on for 10 minutes to let the sauce set. Once the sauce was set I glazed with my pineapple chipotle finishing glaze and back on for another ten minutes.
Chicken halves were spritzed with just a little bit of I Can't Believe it's Not Butter spray as a binder and to help get the golden brown skin color, then hit top and bottom with the SPG. They also went on at 275 until the breast hit 150, then I cranked the heat up a little bit to 325 to crisp the skin until they hit 165. I have been struggling for a while with my chicken skin color... I was getting nothing but ugly greyish and unappetizing looking skin. I believe I have finally solved that problem. It was too big of a fire with too much air flow running through the pit. Solved by starting with a bigger coal base, and once the fire is running clean I closed the stack about half way and the door damper about 3/4 of the way. That seemed to do the trick.
Everything came out nice and juicy and very tender. I was pretty happy with how everything turned out, but of course pictures tell the story better so I'll let others be the judge.
I usually do my spare's St Louis style, but decided to go with full spares this time. Lately, I've realized that I prefer to keep things simple in regards to rubs, and mainly go with SPG on pretty much everything so the natural flavor of the meat and smoke come through more. After 3 hours in the smoke at 275 they got foil wrapped for just about 30 minutes, then sauced with a very thin layer of my own sauce and back on for 10 minutes to let the sauce set. Once the sauce was set I glazed with my pineapple chipotle finishing glaze and back on for another ten minutes.
Chicken halves were spritzed with just a little bit of I Can't Believe it's Not Butter spray as a binder and to help get the golden brown skin color, then hit top and bottom with the SPG. They also went on at 275 until the breast hit 150, then I cranked the heat up a little bit to 325 to crisp the skin until they hit 165. I have been struggling for a while with my chicken skin color... I was getting nothing but ugly greyish and unappetizing looking skin. I believe I have finally solved that problem. It was too big of a fire with too much air flow running through the pit. Solved by starting with a bigger coal base, and once the fire is running clean I closed the stack about half way and the door damper about 3/4 of the way. That seemed to do the trick.
Everything came out nice and juicy and very tender. I was pretty happy with how everything turned out, but of course pictures tell the story better so I'll let others be the judge.
