The past couple of smokes I have done have been extremely underwhelming. I don't know what's wrong. Yesterday I smoked a chicken, corn on the cob and almonds. The only thing that really came out good was the corn. The almonds were in for 4 hours and almost seem raw and there's practically no smoke on them at all. You can smell it, but certainly cannot taste it. The chicken was so so, but the smoke did not come through like I had expected. The chicken was in for about 3.5 hours. My temps were between 250 and 300F. Hard to tell where it really was on average. I didn't get the chicken in time to brine it so I made an injection with butter, water, and some blackened seasoning. I injected about 30 times.. until the chicken wouldn't hold anymore and kept squirting it out back at me. I soaked the almonds in a salt water solution for about 6 hours. The corn on the cob I pulled back the husk, removed the hair, slathered on olive oil and salted, and pulled the husks back over the corn.
The almonds went on first for a total of 4 hours. Then the chicken for 3.5 hours. Corn on the cob was on for about 1.5 to 2 hours. I targeted 275F. I have done almonds before using nearly the identical method and the last time they were awesome. This time you'd swear they were just picked from a tree and someone down the block had a camp fire the day you picked them. You can just barely smell smoke on them, can't test it at all. I left the skin on the chicken. The chicken was certainly moist and the injection tasted great, but other than the skin smelling great, zero smoke was imparted into the chicken. The corn was great, no complaints there.
I added hickory four times throughout this smoke to keep the smoke rolling.
This is the third time in a row I have had an underwhelming smoke. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, and it's starting to get me upset because I know I should be making outstanding food in the smoker and it just ain't happening.
Anyone have any tips to reset me back on the path to truly awesome smoked foods?
Cheers,
Scott
The almonds went on first for a total of 4 hours. Then the chicken for 3.5 hours. Corn on the cob was on for about 1.5 to 2 hours. I targeted 275F. I have done almonds before using nearly the identical method and the last time they were awesome. This time you'd swear they were just picked from a tree and someone down the block had a camp fire the day you picked them. You can just barely smell smoke on them, can't test it at all. I left the skin on the chicken. The chicken was certainly moist and the injection tasted great, but other than the skin smelling great, zero smoke was imparted into the chicken. The corn was great, no complaints there.
I added hickory four times throughout this smoke to keep the smoke rolling.
This is the third time in a row I have had an underwhelming smoke. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, and it's starting to get me upset because I know I should be making outstanding food in the smoker and it just ain't happening.
Anyone have any tips to reset me back on the path to truly awesome smoked foods?
Cheers,
Scott