Made my first try at smoking some St louse style ribs and some chicken quarters in my new MES 40
Watched a few videos online to learn how to use this particular smoker. I got a few rib recipes and same with the chicken. I have been cold smoking Salmon for years with good results, so Im not completely new to the smoking process.
Prep: So I brined my chicken overnight in a simple garlic brown sugar and kosher salt liquid blend. I took both racks of ribs removed the membrane and rubbed them down with mustard let them sit over night.
Smoke: I covered the ribs with a dry rub threw them in the bottom two racks at 250 deg. for 2 hours. Pulled them out wrapped them in foil with butter and honey and threw them back in for an hour.
At the same time I dropped the temp to 225 added my chicken to the top two racks just covering them with a dry rub. I pulled the ribs unwrapped them and covered them with sauce and threw them in for another hour or so until the chicken reached 160.
Wood: During the entire process I was using a combination of apple wood chips and traeger apple wood pellets. I must say I didn't care for the smell of the traeger pellets. The smoke from the chips smelled sweet and the pellets were just like a basic campfire.
Results: The chicken was mouth watering and juicy with amazing flavor but the skin was soft and bitter. Is this normal? The ribs were on the chewy side almost a little tough but some were tender. I only got the St louis style because the meat market had just run out of BBR. I will go with those next time for sure.
I would appreciate any critique I definitely thought the ribs were edible but not what I was looking for.
Watched a few videos online to learn how to use this particular smoker. I got a few rib recipes and same with the chicken. I have been cold smoking Salmon for years with good results, so Im not completely new to the smoking process.
Prep: So I brined my chicken overnight in a simple garlic brown sugar and kosher salt liquid blend. I took both racks of ribs removed the membrane and rubbed them down with mustard let them sit over night.
Smoke: I covered the ribs with a dry rub threw them in the bottom two racks at 250 deg. for 2 hours. Pulled them out wrapped them in foil with butter and honey and threw them back in for an hour.
At the same time I dropped the temp to 225 added my chicken to the top two racks just covering them with a dry rub. I pulled the ribs unwrapped them and covered them with sauce and threw them in for another hour or so until the chicken reached 160.
Wood: During the entire process I was using a combination of apple wood chips and traeger apple wood pellets. I must say I didn't care for the smell of the traeger pellets. The smoke from the chips smelled sweet and the pellets were just like a basic campfire.
Results: The chicken was mouth watering and juicy with amazing flavor but the skin was soft and bitter. Is this normal? The ribs were on the chewy side almost a little tough but some were tender. I only got the St louis style because the meat market had just run out of BBR. I will go with those next time for sure.
I would appreciate any critique I definitely thought the ribs were edible but not what I was looking for.