Quartered yard birds are easiest, if you want try go the bird route, IMHO. I've smoked whole birds with numerous methods for prep and smoking, but never really get the great bird experience I've been looking for, so to go with quartered birds really does provide opportunity for much better temp control in the finished pieces. Whole birds look great coming out of the smoker, sure, but the quality when it hits the plate is what really matters to me. With them quartered, you can cook to your desired internal temp and control it so much easier than a whole bird. I often find myself second-guessing in an attempt to prevent the breast from over-cooking and drying out while getting thighs up to temp when I smoke whole birds. If you're keeping the skin on, and want a crisp skin (who doesn't), you have a myriad of choices to achieve this. You can do some pre-cook prep with using butter on/under the skin, rub with olive, canola oil (or your preference) before applying dry rub, or, smoke to 20* or so below your desired finished temp and then toss on a hot grill for searing (basically a reverse sear). You can smoke @ around 300-325*, which shortens smoke reaction time quite a bit, but will give a crisper skin. Lastly, start your smoke at a normal low & slow of around 225* for longer smoke reaction time than a hot & fast smoke will achieve, then crank the temp to around 375* when the birds reach about 125* I/T...this will crisp the skin better by the time they reach finished temp. The higher smoke chamber temps of course depend on your smoker, and if it can reach those temps, such as propane fired. BTW, minimum recommended internal temps for poultry is 165*, but I prefer closer to 170* in the breast and 172* or so in the thighs...lots less pink near the bone this way. Oh, if you want to sauce/glaze the birds, do this near the finish of cooking, especially if using high heat to crisp the skin more, as the sugars in your glaze/sauce will scorch easily with high heat, and will become very evident if you use a grill to sear for the finish.
OK, for other entree ideas, CSRs (country style ribs) are another easy treat...either pork or beef (cut your own from a beef chuck roast...I do that quite a bit). If smoke chamber temps will be 225-240*, give them a 2.5-1.5-0.5 method (for a baseline), depending on thickness...more time for thicker cuts or lower chamber temp. You can sauce these as well, if you wish.
Have you considered smoked appetizers, such as ABTs or stuffed mushrooms? They're a little tedious and time-consuming to put together, but well worth the effort.
How about smoked sides like cabbage? Goes great with smoked pork, btw...I'm doing some up for dinner tomorrow to go along with pork CSRs. Then, there's always the infamous smoked beans...I've seldom run across anyone who didn't love smoked beans...unless you make yours from scratch, nothing is much easier than smoked beans.
Have a great smoke-filled game-day!!!
Eric
