Offset smoker chicken problems

[kevin james]

Over the last several years I’ve been working hard, dialing in my recipes and processes for everything from pulled pork, pork ribs, tri-tip, brisket, and a few other things here and there. I've also graduated from an electric smoker, to a pellet grill, to a WSM, and finally an offset. There was a little bit of a learning curve with the offset (Kat 24x48 reverse flow), but I love cooking on the offset and for the most part I’m really happy with the way my food turns, except for one thing….. chicken.

Chicken has become my nemesis. I just can’t seem to get it right. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong but my offset just does not seem to like cooking chicken. Instead of getting a nice golden brown skin color, I get a very grey and unappetizing looking skin color and fairly quickly, usually after the first 30 minutes it’s already turning grey. I am very good about making sure I’m running a super clean fire, and I normally can’t even see smoke coming out of my stack, just pure clean heat. I also preheat my splits so they catch almost immediately so even when I put a new split on my stack remains clear. I’m also not using a ton of sugar in my rub, and no paprika either. I also clean the inside of the cook chamber top to bottom every couple weeks. None of that seems to matter though and I’m just frustrated and not sure what I’m doing wrong.

Today I did an experiment, I cooked two chickens, one on my offset and one on my 22.5 WSM. Both were prepped identically…. cut in half, dried with a paper towel, and rubbed with SPG and some lemon pepper. No sugar, no paprika, no oil on the outside. I have also read in some threads that too much moisture in the cook chamber could contribute to this issue, so I didn’t spritz, and no water pan today.

I keep hearing that you have to cook hotter with chicken so I got my temps up between 315 and 325 on both cookers. That actually seemed to make it WORSE in the offset, not better. I checked on it after 30 minutes and it was totally black, not starting to get grey… it was BLACK! The chicken on the WSM however was a beautiful golden brown, and maintained that color throughout the cook.

The fact that the two chickens were prepped identically and cooked at roughly the same temps rules out anything with the birds themselves or the rub and pins it squarely on something to do with the cooker, but with a clean cooker and clean fire, I just don’t know what the heck I’m missing here.

I will say one other thing I noticed recently that seemed very strange. While cooking a brisket on the top shelf I placed a foil pan underneath to catch the drippings. Later, I poured the drippings in a clear container to cool and they turned a very dark grey as well. I am really confused as to what the heck is going on and causing these problems so any help would be appreciated. I will say none of the food I’ve cooked had an off flavor of ash or soot or anything like that, but still something is clearly wrong here.

One thing I have done that I’m wondering if it could be the culprit, is when I clean the smoker, I will usually spray a very light coating of cooking spray to reseason and prevent rust. Could that be it? I am determined to figure this out and get it sorted.

Here’s a couple pics at the 45 minute mark today. The one in the WSM turned out great, the one in the offset went in to the garbage.

 

[mike243]

is your chicken dripping down onto the hot reverse plate and burning? it might be stopped by putting the chicken over a foil pan with a warming rack to hold it up and keep it out of the juices,

 

[Chasdev]

Are you burning straight wood?
Chicken gets over smoked real fast and real easy.
What it needs is heat and lots of it for no more than an hour.
I only cook chicken on a small to medium Weber, direct over the coals (with the lid on) for 45 to 60 minutes.
(and not very often does it take the full 60 minutes).
Hot and fast baby, hot and fast.

 

[smokin peachey]

How clean was the smoke? Did you use dry wood?

 

[Brokenhandle]

I don't have an offset but to me it sounds like something going on with you cleaning the smoker...especially how you explain how the drippings of your brisket turned out. Maybe do a few more cooks of food that does turn out well, don't clean your smoker and then try chicken to see how it turns out.
Hopefully someone with an offset will chime in and give you some real expertise!

Good luck!
Ryan

 

[SmokinAl]

Looks to me like your not getting a clean burn with your wood. Are you getting a lot of heavy white smoke? If so try starting a small fire & add smaller splits until you get your temp up then you can add bigger splits to a raging fire. I also warm the wood up on top of the firebox for 10-15 minutes before I put it on the fire. I’m sure you’ll get it figured out.
Al

 

[kevin james]

Thanks guys. To answer a few of your questions:

1. Mike243: Yes, the chicken is dripping, however I have tried in the past sitting the chicken on a cooling rack over a roasting pan to catch drippings. Still got the same result, although I am willing to try this again. I do notice that the side of the bird facing where the heat and smoke enter the cook chamber gets darker than the side facing the fire box.

2. Chasdev: I start my fire with a chimney of hot lump charcoal poured over a small bed of unlit lump in my fire management basket, then I add 2-3 small splits, and hit it with a leaf blower to get the splits to catch, and let them go for a little bit. The cook chamber door, firebox door and stack and door dampers are wide open during the start up process, and when I do close everything up I make sure there is nothing but clean heat coming out of the stack. From that point on it's splits only, I do not add any more charcoal, that is just to get the fire going. Also, often times I will cook chicken with other items that go on way before the chicken, so by the time the chicken does go on, all of the lump charcoal is long gone and its the spent splits that are keeping the coal bed going.

3. Smokin peachey: The smoke was clean, no visible smoke coming from the stack, just clean heat, and the wood is dry.

4. Brokenhandle: I suppose it could be something with how I'm cleaning the smoker. I'll admit that the one thing I haven't done is steam clean it. Maybe I need to do that as the expanded metal grates themselves are difficult to clean and get all the grease off. I guess grease could be dripping onto the reverse flow plate. Maybe I need to get a ripping fire going and steam clean this thing.

5. SmokinAl: I agree that looking at the chicken it does look like a dirty fire issue (maybe in combo with old grease heating up and dripping off the grates onto the plate and burning?) But what confuses me is that the wood is dry, the stack and door damper is kept 100% open, and I watch the stack like a hawk and it's just clean heat coming out, you don't see any smoke. Certainly not any black, grey, or white smoke bellowing out. Nothing like that at all. I'm constantly watching for that.

 

[Brokenhandle]

Hope someone else pipes in and has a better answer for you! Look forward to seeing what you find out. Some guys just use a weed burner to clean grates or crank heat after a smoke to burn any excess off.

Ryan

 

[kevin james]

Update. I talked to Ken from Kat Smokers today and he gave me some tips.

He said I'm cleaning the smoker way to often and he thinks I messed up the seasoning by scraping with a metal putty knife (oops.. my bad). Basically, he said seasoning the smoker closes off the pores in the metal, but when you scrape it with a metal scraper you're opening the pores again, so you're doing more harm then good. He said all you need to do is knock the crud off the grates when you fire it up to cook, and the cook temp will kill any bacteria so you're good there. He said how often you do a deep clean depends how often you cook, but for me he said once every six months should be good. His recommendation and what he does for a deep clean is to use a power washer on the inside and if you must, you can scrape lightly with a plastic scraper, but not metal. Then re-season it and I should be good for another 6 months.

To fix my issue he recommended starting from scratch basically. Do a deep cleaning on it with the power washer, then re-season it, and then stop cleaning it so often. Just knock the crud of the grates before a cook and that's it.

He also said that the cooker is designed to cook more with convective heat, and that it sounds like I'm pushing too much air flow through it. And he said instead of trying to regulate temps by the amount of wood, regulate temps with the dampers and stack. That all sounds counter intuitive to me and everything I've ever heard with any kind of offset, but that's what he said and he's the guy that designed it so .... ok, I'll take his word for it. He said to cook at 250 the door damper should probably only be open about 3/8's of the way, and the stack should only be about half way open. He said that should be enough oxygen and draw to get a clean burn. I on the other hand have been cooking with the stack and the damper full open.

He wants me to do the deep clean and re-season it, then try my chicken experiment again, but this time only set the stack and the door damper as noted above, put a small water pan on the fire box side, and put the chicken on the bottom rack closer to the firebox side running at 300 - 325 at grate level. Then see how it turns out, and call him back.

So I'm going to try that. if that doesn't work then I'm going to try an experiment with the wood... I'm going to buy a bag of kiln dried cooking splits and try them. I know those are crap from a smoke flavor perspective, but they are clean (no mold or fungus or anything like that), and they are dry and should burn super clean. If using them DOES fix it... then i know it's an issue with my wood.

I WILL get this figured out one way or another.

 

[Brokenhandle]

Sounds like maybe he has you on the right path! Hope it works out for you!

Ryan

 

[fullborebbq]

Just curios, what type of wood are your splits??

 

[kevin james]

Just curios, what type of wood are your splits??

Wood is white oak splits.

 

[chopsaw]

Just seeing this , but reading from the top I was thinking seasoning . Then I saw the advice in post 9 . Just gonna mention this . Not smoker related , but I was using a carbon steel pan over the weekend , and something caused it to lose the seasoning . Turned the whole dish gray .
So I would think that's at least some of the problem .
I don't run a stick burner anymore , but maybe try adding some other types of wood to your oak to adjust the color .

 

[kevin james]

Just seeing this , but reading from the top I was thinking seasoning . Then I saw the advice in post 9 . Just gonna mention this . Not smoker related , but I was using a carbon steel pan over the weekend , and something caused it to lose the seasoning . Turned the whole dish gray .
So I would think that's at least some of the problem .
I don't run a stick burner anymore , but maybe try adding some other types of wood to your oak to adjust the color .

Certainly worth a try. I do like cherry... so maybe I'll throw some of that in the mix here and there.

 

[Sosolen]

Did a full clean eventually fix this? Or what did?

I kind of have the same problem, although not as bad as you. And I can't figure out what it is.

 

[Danblacksher]

I had this happen on a batch of sausage I smoked and not sure why it did that as well, but everything else has not done that. I do have a new offset ordered so will be interested to head the solution.