What is this "smoker" thing attached to my new grill?

[jim t]

I have been grilling in one form or another for about 45 years or so.  I just got a new Brinkmann Smoke N' Grill for father's day.  I asked for it because, with 5 burners, it has about an acre or so of grilling surface and I just love it.  But, I have never smoked anything (except the occasional cigar) in my life.  Any suggestions on a simple meat to start with?  A rub or brine to use?  What wood works best with what meat?  Do I need to break it in and season it or just let it season itself as I burn animal flesh?  Any advice would be appreciated.  Looking at the internet, I am thinking that the easiest thing to do is to buy a small chicken, inject it with some cajun butter marinade, stick in my leave in thermometer, put some apple chips and water in the pan and let it roll to about 170 degrees or so.  Am I setting myself up for disaster?

 

[manana]

I misread...I thought you were going to cook it at 170 so please ignore my previous post.

welcome!

 

[s2k9k]

Hi Jim! 

 to SMF!!! We're happy to have you here! You've come to the right place, there's lot's of great people here to help you on your journey to smoked food! 

Wow that was a lot of questions but I think you answered them all yourself. Your plan for the chicken is right on for your first time. The Creole Butter is real good. 170* is the target temp for chicken, people say 165* in the breast 175* in the thigh so you are right on. One thing, I would season the smoker before use, just heat it up and burn some chips just like you were going to cook something, it should have come with some instructions for doing that, you just do this to burn off any oils or dirt or anything left behind from the manufacturing of it before you put food in it. Seasoning also gives you a little time to learn it a bit, like setting temps and vents for good smoke flow.

 

[s2k9k]

I'm new at this too but I think 170 is a little low for chicken. I think I'd lean more towards 230.  Pork butt is a good first meat. It's very forgiving.

I'm doing a beer can chicken this weekend but I'm going 300 to 350 because I want a crispier skin.

He said he was going to use a "leave in therm", I think he meant probe and was talking about IT.

 

[jim t]

Yeah, The 170 I was talking about was the temp of the meat.  I was also planning to set the cook temp to the 300 to 350 range.  I heard that pork butt takes a lot of time and a lot of fussing with.  I am more of a "set it up and let it go till it's done" type of cook.  I will probably throw another bird on the rotisserie at the same time in case I kill the one in the smoker.

 You can beer can a bird in the smoker?   Same procedure as doing it on an indirect heated grill top?

 

[mossymo]

Glad you joined us Jim T!

Congrats on the smoking grill!

In my opinion one of the easiest, most difficult smokes to have turn out poorly and very rewarding is pulled pork from smoking a butt. Take a pork butt and slather it with regular yellow mustard and apply a favorite meat rub for seasoning. I like to get the cooking chamber temp to 225º to 250º spritzing the butts every hour or so to keep them from drying out. When the internal meat temp is about 140º I will foil them with a little of the spritz for added moisture and bring the internal meat temp to 200º to 205º and take it out of the smoker wrapping the foiled buts in old towels and let the meat rest in the foil and towels in a cooler for a few hours. It may sound crazy but the pulled pork is more flavorful from a slow internal cool down and start absorbing moisture that is in the foil. When you go to pull the pork it will still be steaming hot... I have cooler as long as 5 hours and still gotten steam.

Also save the juices (Liquid Gold) that are with the pork butt when removing from the foil and pour them into a container to refrigerate. When the juices have cooled take a spoon and remove the fatty grease that is over the juices and then warm the juices and pour over your pulled pork.

Another thing I like about pulled pork is you can make it up days or weeks in advance, Foodsaver it and then freeze or refrigerate and when you heat it up just put the vacuum sealed bags of pulled pork in boiling water to heat it back up, open the sealer bag a serve.

And here is a great recipe for a finishing sauce to offer to serve with the pulled pork instead of bbq sauce if you wish.

1 Cup Cider Vinegar
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
1 Teaspoon Tony Chachere's Cajun Seasoning
1 Teaspoon Course Black Pepper
1 Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

Warm the Vinegar up enough so that it disolve's the sugar well. Then add the remaining ingredients.

I don't add this to the pulled pork, I have it in a ketchup style bottle and offer it as an option for people to add on top of the pulled pork once it is on their sandwich. Majority of people love it and choose to top their sandwich with it over bbq sauce.

Hope this all helps... and look forward to hearing and seeing pics to your first smoke!
 

 

[jim t]

Printing out that recipe now.  Thanks for the suggestion.  probably try it next weekend.  This one is for the chicken since I already bought it.

 

[jrod62]

Welcome to SMF

 

[JckDanls 07]

Jim T... welcome to the forums and your new addiction (smoking).. As far as seasoning your new grill.. this is a must... as was mentioned get your smoker up to temp (300`) add some wood chips for a couple to 3 hrs... before you fire it up take an empty water bottle and poke a small hole in the cap... then fill it with cheap veggy oil and squirt the oil on,in,and all over the smoker, inside and out, anywhere and everywhere (Don't do this on your concrete patio, but out in the yard on the grass)... Do the whole unit, top to bottom... when your smoker looks like it is drying out (6 months or so) oil it down again,, This will help prevent rust in the future... when you fire it up for the first time and run it for a couple of hrs you will see and feel the oil starting to thicken up and maybe even get a little tacky (sticky).. that is what you want...

 

[rtbbq2]

Welcome....looks like the others are all over answering your questions..........good luck....

 Start early when you do the butt...They take a long time. I have mine on by 5 am....

 

[smokinhusker]

Hello Jim and welcome to SMF! Congrats on the new Brinkmann. Looks like you have lots of tips on smoking you some good eats.

Let us know how it goes and don't forget the q-view!

 

[scarbelly]

Hello and 

 to SMF - glsd to have you here

 

[barnesski1]

RTBBQ2 nailed it!  Pork butts need an early start.  I learned that lesson the hard way! 

 

[jim t]

Somebody wanted feedback with a Q View well here it is.  Sadly, I have found that what I bought was what I first thought, a very nice, very big grill and I am good with that.  The smoker on the 2012 Brinkmann Smoke'N Grill Professional 5 Burner Gas Grill with Smoker

is capable of producing a smoked chicken but only with CONSTANT attention.  The wood chip container holds about 1/2 cup of wood chips and the water pan holds about a cup or 2 of water which needs to be refilled about every 15 minutes or so.  This requires opening the door and as the adage I read elsewhere on this site goes "If you are looking, you ain't cooking." 

That said, I was able to produce a pretty good bird for my first try.

 

It turned out moist and very tasty. 

    I did find out that I am going to need to tone down my rub by about a fourth or so.  Since I usually Rotissery cook my birds and the oils roll around the bird wash alot of the rub off, I wasn't thinking about the fact that when smoking, the top of the bird remains fairly dry so all of the rub stays on the chicken.  Well, next weekend is coming and I plan on trying it again.  Thanks all for the advice and cheering me on.  I will post elsewhere in the forum when I get something worth posting.