yahoot
Fire Starter
- Jun 6, 2016
- 67
- 23
So I'm going to ask a potentially stupid question. I just got a Copperhead 3 series in September. Never smoked anything before in my life, so fairly clueless, but can obviously read up about what to do. Once I finally got it put together and started trying a few things out, I'm confused on what's going on. The first thing I smoked was a pork loin. Since the 3 is small I cut it in half. Used one half for chops and pulled the other half. Overall was pretty easy and the smoker worked as expected. It was a coolish day and a little windy. It took longer than I expected at 225 but attributed it to the wind. However, the next thing I smoked (again at 225) was a couple whole chickens. From everything I've seen, it should have been somewhere around a 3 hour cook. It took 7-8 hours!! It turned out perfectly good, but what I thought I was having for a late dinner, I was dealing with at 1-2am. Obviously with this kind of pellet smoker there's only so much I can screw up. I know they have a temperature fluctuation but have never heard of them affecting cook time since it should average out. Anyone have that kind of experience where the overall cook time was drastically longer than it should have been? I'm afraid to even smoke something else because I don't know how long it's going to take. Thanks.
I have never used a 3 series, but we have several 5s and 7s and love them. We actually smoke less time in them than in our previous smokers, but we also finish most things (ribs, steaks, brisket, chicken parts, tri-tip, etc.) on a grill/broiler/hot oven to brown them up.
The fact that your pork worked OK makes me think it isn't your smoker. The temperature swing in your smoker should not be dramatically different from the swing in the oven in your kitchen. I think a lot of folks get all excited about "swing" because they use digital thermometers in their smokers and can see the temp going up and down. However, as is discussed in a bunch of threads in this forum, if they will put their thermometers in their kitchen ovens, they will see similar swings - but oven manufacturers are smart enough not to show it on the oven's readouts.
How long does it take a couple of whole chickens (prepped the way you do for your smoker) to cook in your kitchen oven at 225? Maybe try cooking one to see? Your smoker really won't cook faster than your oven at the same temp (there is a slight boost from the moving air - like a convection oven, but its not huge).
FWIW - the manual for the 3 series smoker says it should take 5-6 hours to cook a whole chicken https://images.pitboss-grills.com/catalog/manuel/77350_20171005.pdf
Also, how are you measuring "done"? By internal temp with a thermometer? by look? These vertical smokers are excellent at adding smoke flavor, but they don't produce direct heat like a grill, so they don't brown/render as well (they aren't supposed to). Especially with poultry, the food can be quite done, but can look underdone (pale).
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