Smoked chicken problems

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Tomhusker

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Original poster
Jul 16, 2018
17
22
I have guests coming over on Sunday for dinner. One has cholesterol issues, so I'd like to smoke a whole chicken.
The problem is, I have not been able to successfully smoke a whole chicken. If it's not over cooked, it's under cooked. Every time. I've tried smoking it for a specific length of time, no dice. Used temperature probes, sometimes one probe, sometimes multiple probes. Still no luck. If I probe the breast, the thighs don't get done. If I probe the thighs, the breast gets over cooked. Spat chocked or whole, it doesn't matter.

There has to be a happy middle place where it all gets done at the same time /temp.

The chickens I use are large, 7-8 lbs each, and homegrown.
Any advice is appreciated.
 
Why not just smoke chicken pieces - best of both worlds? However if you really want to smoke a whole chicken I would suggest brining it with your favorite solution and smoking it with high indirect heat 325* or higher. Poultry(for my family anyways) takes on smoke rather quickly and can be ruined if its over smoked. Just my two cents. Good luck with the smoke and have fun.

Chris
 
I have good luck smoking the "beer can" way but my chickens typically are not as large as yours. My wife approves and she is pretty particular about doneness and moistness.
 
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I have good success with whole chickens. I splatchcock them, brine in slaughterhouse brine and cook to 165 at the thickest part. these can have a variety of cook temps depending on the goal. lots of guys to them at 350 - which is much like baking in the oven and doesn't take long.. I usually do them at about 250 or so get a longer smoke bath.
 
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What are you cooking / smoking on ? I don't add smoke to chickens , because I want to see the skin color from cooking . I use that as a gauge to see where the hot spot of the grill / smoker is at .
Even color on the skin from turning bird away from the hot spot .
20200524_175554.jpg
Wet brine or inject with Tony C's creole butter for a whole bird . Tie your birds . Cooks more even .
Same chicken .
Before injecting and overnight brine ,
20191130_215129.jpg
Injected soaked and tied .Ready for the smoker .
Full of moisture and flavor .
20191130_221004.jpg
Test your probes in boiling water . If your probes are right you should have at least some good results .

I don't spatch much , but that's a great way to get good results and have the dark and light meat finish together .

20170924_181001.jpg 20170924_183110.jpg

All these were cooked on a Weber kettle .
 
As others have said, wet brine the chickens for 12 - 24 hours before cooking. That will eliminate dry breast and perfect dark meat, or perfect breast and under done thighs and drums. It doesn't help here, but maybe on your own, I no brined spatchcocked two whole chickens recently. Hit with SPOG and stuffed salted butter under the breast skin. Insta probed breast was 168 and thighs just north of 180. I thought the breast would be toast, but actually was perfect all the way through. Thinking that butter helped a lot, put it on frozen.
 
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I have guests coming over on Sunday for dinner. One has cholesterol issues, so I'd like to smoke a whole chicken.
The problem is, I have not been able to successfully smoke a whole chicken. If it's not over cooked, it's under cooked. Every time. I've tried smoking it for a specific length of time, no dice. Used temperature probes, sometimes one probe, sometimes multiple probes. Still no luck. If I probe the breast, the thighs don't get done. If I probe the thighs, the breast gets over cooked. Spat chocked or whole, it doesn't matter.

There has to be a happy middle place where it all gets done at the same time /temp.

The chickens I use are large, 7-8 lbs each, and homegrown.
Any advice is appreciated.

Good news.... it's not you, or your smoker! Chickens (and turkeys too) are two types of muscles and they need to be cooked to two separate internal temperatures. Breasts are perfect in the 158° to 160° range, and dark meat is best at 175° and higher. It is incredibly difficult to cook a whole bird (or a long half) and nail both temperatures.

The solution is pretty easy, cut them in half at the pelvis, this gives you a front half, and a rear half. When each one reaches the perfect internal temperature, just remove it from your smoker or grill.

MEOawL4.jpg
Butchering is simple. Cut the skin between the leg and the body. Skin only.... then work your knife down to the backbone. You can make a cut or just snap it with your hands, and cut the flap of skin. Trim the wing tips, areas of loose skin, the Parsons nose, and remove the globs of fat. Cutting away some of the rib bones will make carving easier.

ppMBEcb.jpg
 
Thanks for all the responses. I will try brining this time, and cooking at a higher temperature. I usually smoke everything between 225 & 250. I think maybe that's not an ideal temperature for chicken.
I like the idea of separating the front of the bird from the back end. I'll also be doing that this time.
 
the best way i've done whole birds it to spatchcock and finish in the oven. yes its cheating but its the easiest way.
 
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You sure got a lot of excellent advice for the chicken so I will go in a different direction as an option. If everyone likes breast just do a nice big turkey breast. All the things above for brining or injection hold true and you only have one type muscle with one target finish temp. We love smoking them. Often we do the boneless ones all netted up.
 
Since this is kind of a catch-all thread for problems with smoking or grilling whole birds, here is one method I've used which does work. But before you try this out on guests, or the preachers wife..... practice a few times.

wOWHC.jpg

Start with a generous half (5/8 or larger) of two lemons, you want them identical for obvious reasons. These need to be frozen almost solid. An option before freezing is to cut slits in the pulp and insert slivers of garlic butter (or plain butter). A couple of hours before cooking slip your frozen lemon halves under the skin, from the bottom works best, pin the skin tight with a toothpick, and lay the bird on it's back in the fridge uncovered for an hour, then on the counter while your cooker comes up to temp. This dries the skin a little, but allows the breasts to become colder than the thighs and drumsticks. See where I'm headed with this??? You only need the breasts 12° to 15° colder than the dark meat. You can add a zipper bag of crushed ice atop the breasts too to speed up the chilling process.

Anyways, now the thighs have a head start and your goal is to have the thighs reach 175° about the same time the breasts reach ~160°. As the lemons thaw, they sort of self baste the breast. If you used garlic butter you get more benefit from the self-basting.
 
Try Cornish hens, I smoked this one at 225F for about 4 hours. Basted in bourbon sauce with home rub. Really tasty 😋
 

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