New to smoking and need advice on how much wood to use.

[The Noid]

I'm a total newbie to smoking. I just bought a Vision Komodo S series. For my first smoke I tried chicken breasts. I put 5 Breasts on, 4 wrapped and 1 not. I added about 5 or 6 chunks of hickory like the guys with this grill on YouTube did. Got good smoke for the first hour and a half to two hours. Then the wood chunks must've burned up. I took the breasts off after 4 hours even though I only had smoke for half the cook. The unwrapped breast had a perfect level of smoke flavor but the foil wrapped breasts had zero smoke flavor... I used dry chunks like the videos but their smoke seems to last the entire cook. You can't really add wood using this smoker so I need to know where I screwed up. I'm also assuming that the smoke should last the entire cook like in the videos I watched, is that true? Any advice will be much appreciated!

 

[oddegan]

I believe smoke has a hard time passing through foil. I thought you meant wrapped in bacon. If you are worried about them being dry try wrapping in bacon. Layers of flavor and the fat keeps them moist.

 

[BKING!]

Just because you don’t see smoke doesn’t mean you’re not getting it. Google thin blue smoke or transparent smoke. Obviously the wrapped breasts arent getting any smoke flavor if you wrapped them the entire cook or did you only wrap the last half?

 

[The Noid]

They were wrapped the entire time. But I couldn't smell any wood smoke after 2 hours and when I took them off after 4 hours there was no wood left at all.

 

[SonnyE]

Wrapped in what?
If it is wrapped in anything non-edible, how who you expect any smoke to get to the chicken?
Think about it, smoke an egg with the shell on, and one with the shell off. Which would taste smokier?
Yep, the fried one. Because you forgot to use hard boiled eggs. :confused: o_O

;) Rome wasn't built in a day, so don't expect too much of yourself right out of the carton. You need some time, and some smaller batches to get the hang of your dragon.
Chicken is a good practice meat that everybody bar-b-ques. I'd suppose you got you a bag of chunks of smoke wood.
You tried it with 5-6. Get your dinner ready and try 10 chunks, and less charcoal. If that's too smokey, cut back to 7-8 chunks.
It's all learning your choice of Bar-B-Que and How to Do the Que that will be Famous to You, Amos.
But don't open the box and expect Famous Amos Que to come out of it. You need to put in some elbow grease, and figure it out.
And I wish I was there to eat the left overs.

 

[BKING!]

Just reme

They were wrapped the entire time. But I couldn't smell any wood smoke after 2 hours and when I took them off after 4 hours there was no wood left at all.

If your not smelling smoke then you definitely burned through it. In that case I’d bury some of chunks and have some on top. I’d also have some in the center and some along the edges. That way they catch and smolder at different time intervals. Just remember that a little smoke goes a long way. Smoke should be an ingredient not a dominant flavor. I would personally be alright with 2 hours of smoke especially when your smoking chicken with hickory. Hickory is a stronger smoke wood and poultry doesn’t need that much smoke.

 

[The Noid]

Thanks brother, these guys on YouTube make it look so simple and easy. I'll definitely be practicing for a while! I thought I followed the videos pretty much... so my main concern is whether or not I should have smoke throughout the entire cook. I'm thinking that I should.

 

[The Noid]

Just reme


If your not smelling smoke then you definitely burned through it. In that case I’d bury some of chunks and have some on top. I’d also have some in the center and some along the edges. That way they catch and smolder at different time intervals. Just remember that a little smoke goes a long way. Smoke should be an ingredient not a dominant flavor.

Good advice

 

[pops6927]

Every smoke you learn something new. Do yourself a favor; create a smoking log book! It is so simple to make - print out sheets, 3-hole punch and keep in a ring-binder.

We all make many, many mistakes. Any new endeavor you are bound to. I'm re-teaching myself how to play guitar with my other hand and wow, do I sound awful! But, from Rev. Robert H. Schuller, "Move Ahead With Possibility Thinking" - "Inch By Inch Anything's A Cinch. But, By The Yard It's Always Hard!" And every day I practice, I get a little bit better! And I make notes of my progress!

This is from TulsaJeff!
https://statich.smokingmeatforums.com/0/07/07104ca2_smoking-meat-log.pdf

 

[gmc2003]

That's a little over one chunk of hickory per breast. Holy cow you must love the flavor of smoke in your food. Four hours also seem long for breasts unless your doing them at a really low temp which is a waste of time in my opinion. There's no real fat to render out of breast meat except in the skin, and to get crispy skin you need a higher temp(around 325 and up). At 250* they should done in just under 2 hrs. As others have pointed out the foil wrapped chicken was shielded from the smoke - thus no smokey flavor. Let us know if your try it again.

Chris

 

[BKING!]

Every smoke you learn something new. Do yourself a favor; create a smoking log book! It is so simple to make - print out sheets, 3-hole punch and keep in a ring-binder.

We all make many, many mistakes. Any new endeavor you are bound to. I'm re-teaching myself how to play guitar with my other hand and wow, do I sound awful! But, from Rev. Robert H. Schuller, "Move Ahead With Possibility Thinking" - "Inch By Inch Anything's A Cinch. But, By The Yard It's Always Hard!" And every day I practice, I get a little bit better! And I make notes of my progress!

This is from TulsaJeff!
https://statich.smokingmeatforums.com/0/07/07104ca2_smoking-meat-log.pdf

Yes making notes is something I’ve recently started and I’m actually improving now! Listen to this advice and take it to heart OP. It’s the difference between getting better and getting stuck in a rut.

 

[oddegan]

Don't sweat it to much. Meat is as much art as science and the learning curve can be pretty steep at the beginning. We could all post some great stuff about smokes of our own that may not have worked out as planned. And some pretty epic failures.

 

[The Noid]

Every smoke you learn something new. Do yourself a favor; create a smoking log book! It is so simple to make - print out sheets, 3-hole punch and keep in a ring-binder.

Good idea! I will definitely start one. Thanks so much for taking the time to help out a noob!

 

[The Noid]

Thanks so much for the help and the link to that awesome printable journal!