Hello everyone!

[shea1973]

Hello everyone, I just started out smoking a few weeds ago, so I am a newbie!

   My first try was at ribs.  Amazingly ans to my surprise they turned out perfectly, the meat came right off the bone!  My second try was 3 1lb rib-eye steaks, they came out pretty dry.

Well I went out today and bought $40 in hickory wood, I also have several bags apple and cherry wood chips.  Tomorrow I am going to try to smoke 2  4.5lb young chickens.  I am going to let the young chickens soak over night in some brine. 

Here are the questions that I have.

How many hours should I smoke the 2  4.5lb chickens?

Along with using the hickory wood I want to use the apple and/or cherry wood chips.  Would the cherry chips be best with the hickory wood for the chickens or the apple chips or a combination of all 3?

Also what is the best way to use the chips for the smoker?  Given that there little wood chips I would think they would burn quickly, so how would I best use them for the smoker?

Thank You for your help and advice!

Shea

 

[werdwolf]

Welcome and enjoy.

What type of smoker?

I would use the apple or cherry and hold the hickory personally.  I use mesquite on chicken also.

Cook to temp not time.

 

[meateater]

Welcome to the SMF. Glad to have you here. Lots of good folks, great recipes and knowledge. Looking forward to your first qview.

 

[shea1973]

Welcome and enjoy.

What type of smoker?

I would use the apple or cherry and hold the hickory personally.  I use mesquite on chicken also.

Cook to temp not time.

It is a brink man grill and smoker combine.  It is not electric, gas or anything like that.  Also on the Apple and Cherry they are just little bags of wood chips that you can buy at walmart.  I couldn't find anyone locally that sold logs of apple wood or cherry, I couldn't find any one locally either for Mesquite logs.  Only hickory Logs that I can find locally for sale.  Now I can buy Mesquite chunks at walmart, but there pretty small bag and pieces.

Shea
 

 

[beer-b-q]

 

Welcome to SMF, Glad to have you with us.
 

This is the place to learn, lots of good info and helpful friendly Members.
 

For those of you new to Smoking, be sure to check out Jeff's 5 Day Smoking Basics eCourse.
 

Click Here it's"FREE" ...5 Day eCourseE

 

[bigwoo73]

SHEA, I know what you mean about limited selection of wood chunks. I can only get mesquite and hickory. I went looking on-line and found a place with a pretty good selection. Apple, Cherry, Oak, Maple, Hickory, Mesquite, and more, and even grapevines. All in chunks rather than chips. I placed an order for the variety pack-5 lbs of Apple, Cherry, Oak, and Maple for $24. The shipping hurt, $21, but at least I got what I wanted.To answer your question, the chips do burn up rather quickly, even when soaked prior to use. What I do is throw in a couple blocks of Hickory and a small handful of Apple chips. I put new Apple chips in every 30 minutes or so until I run out (1 pound bag). might be a little wasteful, but I'm happy with the results.

Scott

 

[eman]

Take a piece of heavy duty foil and fold it in half then in half again. fold the ends to seal to make an envelope. you want it to end up about 8 inches long.

open the envelope and put your chips inside and fold the edge over to seal. now you have a sealed packet of chips..

poke about 6 holes the size of a pencil point in one side of the packet.

 lay the packet where its touching the edge of your hot coals. ( not on top of the coals).

 This will produce ample smoke . Make 5 or 6 packets ahead of time and add as necessary to maintain a lil smoke..

 you can make different flavor packets or mix the different chips in one packet.

 

[shea1973]

Scott I have looked up wood on the Internet my self, but have not ordered any thing, the shipping and handling price is what stops me from ordering!

  Eman I did put the apple chips into foil, but stuck them above the charcoals on top of the grill. 

I smoked the chickens on Friday for about 3 hours and they turned out very good!  A lot of hickory flavor to them, but hardly no apple flavor. Next time I going to try to smoke some Cornish hens later on this week, I will try one of the 2 different ways suggested about the apple wood chips and see if that improves the flavor.

Thank You all for your help and suggestions, I will keep you posted on how the Cornish Hens turned out!

Shea

 

[old school]

Definitely check out Jeffs smoking classes AND take a look at the thread on Blue Smoke.  It's great stuff!!

 

[smokinstevo27]

That hickory will dominate apple its much stronger, I prefer apple for chicken and hickory for pork.

 

[shea1973]

Well here are some pics I took of the chicken.



Not sure why but it got a little burnt on the side of one of the chickens. 



The finished product. 

 

[captden]

Hi there, I'm a newbi or how ever ya spell it, I think with your chicken, cook smoke it indirect. Keep your temp at 225-300, yea I know but temps will be different as you add coal. Dont add coal till ya see the temp get to 225, then add and let it get to 300 if that be case. It will take close to 2 hr.s???? I would only put the smoke to it for the first half of cooking. When it starts to get cose to the temp your looking for, I would start mopping, and turning, about every 15min. Yea, dat's what I'm talkin bout! PS I really like Apple wood for chicken and turkey!