Mesquite and oak

[AmazonDon703]

Been using this combo for a while now. I love how my long cooks turn out, my smaller cooks- not impressed.

How do you all build/manage your fires? (Offset smokers). I only use wood.

 

[dcecil]

What is it that you are unhappy with on your smaller cooks. What do you consider a small cook.

 

[dave schiller]

Be more specific. Is the problem with the flavor (wood mix) of your product or how to manage the desired temperature with wood?

 

[AmazonDon703]

What is it that you are unhappy with on your smaller cooks. What do you consider a small cook.

 

[AmazonDon703]

A small cook for me would be some chicken wings.

Also, trying to be more specific it would be the flavor. I don't really have an issue controlling temperature but sometimes I'm not happy with the flavor in the final result. I'm starting to think that I'm somehow burning the wood wrong ‍. I don't even know if that's possible because my temperature is correct.

Basically what I do is, before I put the food in the cooking chamber I burn a few splits down to coals and then I threw another split on, I get to cooking chamber at the temperature I want to cook it and then I put the food on. I always get a thin blue smoke that's sometimes transparent. I will add more wood to the fire as needed to maintain temperature.

Whenever I make ribs or brisket, I even made some burgers recently and I had nice smoke rings on everything. But for whatever reason I've never been happy with my chicken. It's really starting to bother me lol. Everyone that has tried it, friends, family, co-workers, all say that it tastes good, but personally I know that the taste is not what I was going for.

 

[dcecil]

Gotcha, sounds like your managing your fire correctly. Wings are hard to get a good smoke on. I always cook those at a much hotter temp and usually finish them off in a seer fashion to crisp them up a bit. One thing I would recommend is larger cuts of chicken even whole birds cooked in a pan with liquid to keep it from drying out. Drop the temp to about 225 so you can keep the chicken on longer. Beer can chicken is my favorite smoked chicken. I brine it to get as much moisture as possible in the meat to help out with the dryness. That lets you keep it on the grill a bit longer to absorb more smoke.

 

[dcecil]

Here is a recipe that worked out pretty well for me. Give it a try if you like.

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/beer-can-chicken.275692/

 

[motolife313]

I use all wood. Never had charcoal in my FB. You could put a bigger piece on top too. Then just keep tossing on wood as needed. Better to have a smaller hot fire. I cut my pieces on the chop saw to about 8” or so.

Usually I start it like this with propane but I ran out the other day

i like to do it like this. Hit down the coaled up wood so it breaks apart then toss a piece right on top of the coals.

 

[Weaverspitbbq]

Use a little pecan ...

 

[phatbac]

Try a fruit wood or pecan as was suggested for a shorter smoke like poultry. You find the flavor more agreeable.

Happy Smoking,
phatbac (Aaron)

 

[Weaverspitbbq]

This one was a gimme Pit

 

[Weaverspitbbq]

This one was a gimme Pit

Made stack longer ..

 

[Weaverspitbbq]

 

[Weaverspitbbq]

 

[Weaverspitbbq]

 

[Weaverspitbbq]

 

[Weaverspitbbq]

Got me some free mesquite splitter took care of the knarly stuff

 

[Weaverspitbbq]

 

[Weaverspitbbq]

Mesquite on the right.....oak on left