- Feb 8, 2006
- 37
- 10
Well, it was a good experience. I started out using cowboy brand lump charcoal. Not knowing exactly what I was doing, I put about a pound in small grill and got it good and hot then added it to firebox. It seemed to be a bit much because my temp was above 300 with all vents closed. It took awhile to get it down around 225 (about half hour.) I then added my salmon and in the far right of my smoker. After 30 minutes I added my whole chicken next to the firebox (which is the only place left)
I spent a lot of time trying to regulate the heat between 220-250. I found myself adding lump charcoal (pre lit) then having to close the vent because heat started getting too hot, then opening cause heat getting too low and on and on that went. I did keep it between those two temps, but it was a lot of monitering. Now the weather here was 55 degrees and a constant wind (about 15 mph) pretty windy. I had a hard time maintaining a constant temp.
After 30 minutes I added about six chunks of wood. cherry and alder and got a good smoke coming out of the stack. After that pretty much burned off, I continued just adding lump charcoal and every now and again I'd add another peice of alder or cherry for more heat and smoke.
I have a digital meat thermometer which I had placed in the chicken breast, and a manual one for the salmon. I know you all say you can tell when the salmon is done when it flakes in the meaty part or the oil comes out from the top. Well the funny thing is, the oily junk started coming out of the salmon within the first hour, but didnt seem even close to being done, so I took the thermometer and checked the salmon and it was at 110 degrees. Clearly not done.
Anyway, I ended up smoking the chicken and salmon about 6 good hours. The salmon never got above 140 degrees until I moved it where the chicken was and put the chicken where the salmon were. The salmon raised in temp and the chickens heat stopped rising. It was at 155 and dropped to 153 in the next few minutes. So what I did was open the vents and put raised the smokers temp to 150 and tried to maintain that. I started cooking my salmon a little too much, but got the temp to 160, then I pulled them and wrapped them in foil and moved the chicken back over near the firebox and continued cooking it with the smoker still around 150 degrees.
It all worked out pretty good with a lot of adjusting heat ect. but it was well worth it. The chicken turned out pretty good, but the skin was very rubbery???? I couldnt eat it. Why is this? The salmon was very good, but to me it seemed just a tad dry. I had an aluminum tray with water and apple juice in it directly under the chicken. The salmon (2 pieces) each on aluminum foil with butter spread on the foil and crimped edges to keep in the juices.
I used jeffs brine mix for my chicken and soaked it for about 7 hours and I brined my salmon for 24 hours in a premade pack I bought from Cabellas.
What should I do different next time if anything?
Bottom line is that I had a great time doing this drinking a little beer and enjoying a stogy. Awesome!!! Sorry this is so long.
Let me see if I can add a couple of pics here.
I spent a lot of time trying to regulate the heat between 220-250. I found myself adding lump charcoal (pre lit) then having to close the vent because heat started getting too hot, then opening cause heat getting too low and on and on that went. I did keep it between those two temps, but it was a lot of monitering. Now the weather here was 55 degrees and a constant wind (about 15 mph) pretty windy. I had a hard time maintaining a constant temp.
After 30 minutes I added about six chunks of wood. cherry and alder and got a good smoke coming out of the stack. After that pretty much burned off, I continued just adding lump charcoal and every now and again I'd add another peice of alder or cherry for more heat and smoke.
I have a digital meat thermometer which I had placed in the chicken breast, and a manual one for the salmon. I know you all say you can tell when the salmon is done when it flakes in the meaty part or the oil comes out from the top. Well the funny thing is, the oily junk started coming out of the salmon within the first hour, but didnt seem even close to being done, so I took the thermometer and checked the salmon and it was at 110 degrees. Clearly not done.
Anyway, I ended up smoking the chicken and salmon about 6 good hours. The salmon never got above 140 degrees until I moved it where the chicken was and put the chicken where the salmon were. The salmon raised in temp and the chickens heat stopped rising. It was at 155 and dropped to 153 in the next few minutes. So what I did was open the vents and put raised the smokers temp to 150 and tried to maintain that. I started cooking my salmon a little too much, but got the temp to 160, then I pulled them and wrapped them in foil and moved the chicken back over near the firebox and continued cooking it with the smoker still around 150 degrees.
It all worked out pretty good with a lot of adjusting heat ect. but it was well worth it. The chicken turned out pretty good, but the skin was very rubbery???? I couldnt eat it. Why is this? The salmon was very good, but to me it seemed just a tad dry. I had an aluminum tray with water and apple juice in it directly under the chicken. The salmon (2 pieces) each on aluminum foil with butter spread on the foil and crimped edges to keep in the juices.
I used jeffs brine mix for my chicken and soaked it for about 7 hours and I brined my salmon for 24 hours in a premade pack I bought from Cabellas.
What should I do different next time if anything?
Bottom line is that I had a great time doing this drinking a little beer and enjoying a stogy. Awesome!!! Sorry this is so long.
Let me see if I can add a couple of pics here.