My Smokers Posessed!

[Bud J]

I have a question regarding an odd thing that is happening tonight in my smoker. I am smoking chicken thighs with Amazen Pit Master Pellets in an electric smoker.
The Chicken was brined for a couple hours. The temps were running between 230-250.
Digital probe was in a thigh and after 1 1/2 hours it said internal was 165*. All thighs said this.

I thought that was a bit fast but brought inside and used instant therm and got the same reading. Basted with a little bbq sauce and out back in for about 15’.
Put probe back in and got same reading. After 15’ brought back in, let rest for a few and cut into them. Juices were clear and no pink but I felt meat needed to firm up a bit. Decided to put back in for another 15’.
Probe NOW said meat temp was 145!!!??? Same with another thigh. Instant therm verified.

Chicken SHOULD have taken about 3 hours so 1 1/2 hours was too quick but all readings were confirmed. Now stating almost 150* !!!???

BBQ sauce being cold and probe pushing into it be the cause?

 

[TNJAKE]

You could be right about the sauce and bringing them inside cooling them down. I take my thighs and legs to 180. Better end product and dark meat can handle the extra heat and remain juicy. Make sure to test your probes periodically in ice water and boiling water. Also we like pics lol

 

[Bud J]

You could be right about the sauce and bringing them inside cooling them down. I take my thighs and legs to 180. Better end product and dark meat can handle the extra heat and remain juicy. Make sure to test your probes periodically in ice water and boiling water. Also we like pics lol

Thanks TN...how are you and your family doing? I saw your post the other day regarding your illness. All okay?

 

[TNJAKE]

Thanks TN...how are you and your family doing? I saw your post the other day regarding your illness. All okay?

Yeah bud thanks for asking. Our covid tests were negative but we had strep throat. Today actually was the last day of daughter's mandatory quarantine. Even negative she had to stay home 14 days since being in direct contact with someone positive. She was happy to go back. Now we are just waiting on the next quarantine lol. Again thanks for asking

 

[jcam222]

I’m with TNJAKE , I do drums, thighs and wings to around 180F.

 

[Bud J]

Chicken turned out well. I smoked for additional hour and all was good.
Yep, I took them up to 178*.

 

[TNJAKE]

Looks great you nailed it

 

[Brokenhandle]

That chicken is beautiful! Great job!

Ryan

 

[one eyed jack]

I love a chicken thigh. Yours look great.

 

[tanglefoot]

Good lookin' runners ya got there!!

 

[bertman]

That does look good. Really nice color.

 

[bill1]

Yes, finished product looks great! But getting back to the demon possession, I think it all sounds angelically logical...

Cooking thighs in 1.5 hours at 240F doesn't sound unreasonable if:
--you're starting with fully thawed wings (were they possibly even closer to room temp? The trip from 70 to 165 is a lot easier than the one from 35 to 165.)
--they have high moisture content (which brining would tend to ensure)

Note cooking time is just a matter of the heat you supply (and if your cooker temp is holding steady it's clear your cooker is heating your meat, your meat isn't cooling the cooker), the thickness of what you're cooking, and the difference between starting temp and desired end temp. Thighs are only an inch thick (in the narrowest dimension) so the heat only has to conduct through a half inch to "be cooked". (A pork butt is 10x that.) Formerly frozen and/or boneless chicken tends to be dryer, so the thermal conduction is lower/slower...but that wasn't an issue here. Granted fully electric smokers don't have much convection going in their favor, which slows down the rate the heat gets applied to the surface, but I'll bet you had a better than average draft going at the time as well.

Also, it's pretty well known that meat "cooks after you remove it" because the heat source was driving a big temp difference between surface meat and central meat. Removing that heat source means the inner and outer surfaces are going to try to equilibrate in temperature. Since "cooking" typically puts the attention on the central temp, that affect makes it appear the meat is "still cooking". But there's also outer surface cooling occurring when you take meat out of a cooker. For large (esp. spherical) pieces of meat, that surface effect is small compared to the volume equalizing affect. But for thighs, it's quite comparable. Additionally, if you add a layer of room temp sauce to that surface, you make the surface cooling effect even greater.

Now this thermal change stuff all takes time and chunks of 15 minutes isn't a lot. Well, it's 17% of your initial cook time, if we want to quantify it.

So your 1st central measurement of 165F was with the surface very hot. Your next measurements at about the same value would have been surprisingly low if the cut was large but instead reflects a balance between volume equalization and surface cooling. Your final low reading reflects the fact that these short 15min periods just aren't enough to drive that large temp difference between surface and center that is the key to cooking (or maintaining) the central temp, esp with the added insulation of sauce.

And there may also be a bit of "stall" physics at play here where, for a given size/geometry, there's a certain temp (might be worth a calculation for thighs?) where the "sweating" effect of moisture evaporating at the surface is comparable to any surface heating you supply. That means there's a temp at which things just seem to hover and not change using any of the usual "knobs". But I don't think we have to invoke anything that fancy in order to explain, and exorcise, your demons. :-)