Smoked Butt and Spatchcock Chicken this mornin

[travisty]

Got up this morning and thought: "hmmm, i think I'm really need to smoke something..." So i ran to the grocer to see what was on sale... Found a nice sized bone in butt and small whole chicken for a sweet price! 

So i got the MES heating up and pulled out the butt, i recently made my own rub rather than using a store-bought one (i was using the "Sweet Rub of Mine" before. So i figured i try her out this time. Gave her a nice rubbing of honey dijon mustard, then applied my rub liberally. (its basically a mix of brown sugar, Paprika, smoked salt, kosher salt, ginger, wasabi powder, chipotle powder, and chili powder in varying degrees, ill let you know how she tastes)

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• travisty
• Dec 5, 2015

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• travisty
• Dec 5, 2015

Didn't have anything for the chicken so while i was at the store i decided to try this new Franks Red hot i hadn't seen before, and this poultry rub i found:

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• travisty
• Dec 5, 2015

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• travisty
• Dec 5, 2015

(my first attempt to spatchcock, worked okay but not perfect)

Anyway, here is the progress so far, i threw the chicken in the race under the butt so it can baste it up throughout, I'm going to switch them places in a moment, since the chip is almost finished. 

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• travisty
• Dec 5, 2015

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• travisty
• Dec 5, 2015

So far it looking pretty good, ill keep y'all updated with pix as they get done. 

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• travisty
• Dec 5, 2015

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• travisty
• Dec 5, 2015

 

[travisty]

Chicken is done! I must have missed the peak point and didn't have the alarm on the probe. We also had to run a couple errands, but anyway i kept putting the instant read into it and never got over 265 when i came back, so i kept waiting but the chicken started to look dry and was no longer running juices. so i cut her open and sure enough all done and just a bit on the dry side. She must have peaked when i was out and dropped the temp down on the MES right when we got back, so must have missed her, i was also using the MES built in probe so that could be part of my problem...

Anyway i also forgot to mention i used 50-50 mix of the Jack Daniel's barrel chips and mesquite chips, just used the pan in the mea no AMNPS this time.

What y'all think so far?

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• travisty
• Dec 5, 2015
• 1

It tastes amazing though, i really like the flavor and hint of spice of that new franks flavor

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

Looks tasty to me ! Thumbs Up

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

For what it's worth, stock therms are not reliable ! Just a suggestion, but I'd be getting a Maverick dual probe therm ! One probe for meat IT & the other for chamber temp ! Thumbs Up

 

[travisty]

For what it's worth, stock therms are not reliable ! Just a suggestion, but I'd be getting a Maverick dual probe therm ! One probe for meat IT & the other for chamber temp ! Thumbs Up

Planning to grab one when the wife opens my smoking budget again!
I currently use a poulder that I have proven pretty accurate, but I don't like to get the cord smoke coated, so I only use it during the last leg when no smoke is involved. Also have a Kitchen-aid one but the probe stopped working and I'm waiting for the warranty replacement.

I actually left the MES probe and put in my poulder probe and the MES was only about 4 degrees low. I had my instant read sticking down into the chamber and reading the temp in there and it was reading 303 when the MES was only reading 264. My instant read is very accurate.

 

[travisty]

Everything turned out pretty good! The rub for the butt was good but I think it needed a bit more salt and brown sugar, it had a bit much bitterness from the paprika. I'll just replace the amount in used with that much of the ingredients above.

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• travisty
• Dec 5, 2015

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The meat of the chicken was really good, but I didn't absolutely love the skin, had the rubbery smoked skin texture and I feel that the rub and sauce I bought sort of clashed. But as mentioned the meat itself was awesome, one of the friends we ate it with said it was the best chicken he had ever eaten and ate a ton of it.

All in all it was a good smoke, thought I didn't get the butt up to the recomended 205 or so, due to time it only reached 198, but it pulled right off the bone and shredded nicely.