- Aug 3, 2020
- 5
- 2
Hi Everyone
It was my first time smoking yesterday, on my Napoleon Apollo 19". So this is how it went. I filled my charcoal basket up to the top and made it level, then removed 20 birquettes from the center and lit them to ash on my chimney. I added them back to the middle of the basket, minion method. Scattered a bunch of chunk wood on top. Assembled the smoker with the water pan 3/4 full of too-hot-to-touch tap water. I kept all the vents wide open until grate temp reached 215 and then closed the lower vents to the width of a pencil. I let it stabilize 25min and it held 213* +/- 1 degree at the grate no problem. (showing 280 on the dome gage, lol)
Then I added my spatchcocked chicken. Temp dipped to 175 with opening the lid, but then back to 213 within 5min. I let it go for an hour. The bird was about 140 at that point. Then basted it, let it go 15min, and basted it again. At this point the bird was at 155. I basted it a 3rd time and let it go another 15min and the bird got to 157. Every time I opened the lid the temp would dip but then recover to the 213 within 5min. Anyways, at this point I'm getting hungry. So I let the bird go another 30min, but the dam thing still stayed at 157.
Now my temp started to drop. I opened the lower door and 90% of my briquettes are gone. So I throw in another 20 briquettes and give it a stir and opened the lower vents fully. This brings my temp to 222 but it will not go any higher. I let it go ANOTHER 30min but the bird is still 157. At this point I gave up since all the added briquettes are used up, and put it in my oven inside at 375, where it still took another 10min before the bird temp climbed to 158, and another 15min to get to 170.
So what the heck. I used 11.5-12lbs of Kingsford Blue briquettes and they all burned up within 2.5hrs with the vents only open the width of a pencil. Is this normal? Even with the vents fully open later in the cook I couldn't get it above 222. I was thinking next time to use lump as it burns hotter...?? Where did I go wrong? I see people on youtube going for a whole day on one load of charcoal???
The stall with the bird also to me seemed ridiculous long to me. I used two sets of probes so the temps are correct. Any thoughts on that?
Any input appreciated, thanks
Matt
It was my first time smoking yesterday, on my Napoleon Apollo 19". So this is how it went. I filled my charcoal basket up to the top and made it level, then removed 20 birquettes from the center and lit them to ash on my chimney. I added them back to the middle of the basket, minion method. Scattered a bunch of chunk wood on top. Assembled the smoker with the water pan 3/4 full of too-hot-to-touch tap water. I kept all the vents wide open until grate temp reached 215 and then closed the lower vents to the width of a pencil. I let it stabilize 25min and it held 213* +/- 1 degree at the grate no problem. (showing 280 on the dome gage, lol)
Then I added my spatchcocked chicken. Temp dipped to 175 with opening the lid, but then back to 213 within 5min. I let it go for an hour. The bird was about 140 at that point. Then basted it, let it go 15min, and basted it again. At this point the bird was at 155. I basted it a 3rd time and let it go another 15min and the bird got to 157. Every time I opened the lid the temp would dip but then recover to the 213 within 5min. Anyways, at this point I'm getting hungry. So I let the bird go another 30min, but the dam thing still stayed at 157.
Now my temp started to drop. I opened the lower door and 90% of my briquettes are gone. So I throw in another 20 briquettes and give it a stir and opened the lower vents fully. This brings my temp to 222 but it will not go any higher. I let it go ANOTHER 30min but the bird is still 157. At this point I gave up since all the added briquettes are used up, and put it in my oven inside at 375, where it still took another 10min before the bird temp climbed to 158, and another 15min to get to 170.
So what the heck. I used 11.5-12lbs of Kingsford Blue briquettes and they all burned up within 2.5hrs with the vents only open the width of a pencil. Is this normal? Even with the vents fully open later in the cook I couldn't get it above 222. I was thinking next time to use lump as it burns hotter...?? Where did I go wrong? I see people on youtube going for a whole day on one load of charcoal???
The stall with the bird also to me seemed ridiculous long to me. I used two sets of probes so the temps are correct. Any thoughts on that?
Any input appreciated, thanks
Matt