Why does my chicken cook so fast?

[elohel]

I read others on here talking about cooking breasts/thighs (individual ones) at 225 and taking them 2-2.5 hours to hit 165-170 IT.

I did some chicken breasts a few weeks ago at 125. They cooked so fast (40 minutes) that they didn't even absorb an ounce of smoke flavor.

I'm now doing bone-in/skin-on thighs at 235. It took them about 40 minutes to go from 52*-122*. I suspect they'll probably be done in another 30 minutes or so at most.

Any ideas? I would really prefer they took 2.5 hours so that my other stuff can finish at the same time, as well as absorb some smoke flavor. I'm going to lower the temps down to 210* and see if that helps.

 

[tom c]

What kind of smoker?

 

[sprky]

Seams rather quick to me. I'm betting your temp is higher then you think it is.Have you checked your thermometer?

 

[elohel]

It's in a MES 40". I've checked the temp of the smoker against two thermometers and it's within a degree or two of them

 

[venture]

I am assuming a typo here?  I think you must have done those breasts at 225 and not 125?

Your chix pieces will cook faster than a whole bird.  Even then, most smoke at higher temps for crisping of the skin.  Or they crisp the skin in another way like on the grill or in a hot oven.

For these meats that smoke so quickly, you might want to think about a stronger smoking wood?

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[roller]

Are you reading the smoker temp at the same place you are placing your chicken ?  Sounds like you have the chicken to close to the top of the smoker...

 

[SmokinAl]

It definitely sounds like the smoker temp is higher than you think it is.

Put an accurate (recently checked in boiling water) therm on the grate next to the chicken. 

Then adjust the smoker until the therm says 225.

 

[mballi3011]

Now tha other first thing that we tell new folks is you don't rely on the factory thermometers they are right about 10% of the time. We use a tested (and we test ours) thermometers to tell us the temp inside the smoker as well as in the meat also. 

 

[owlcreeksmoker4]

I agree with most above i think your thermometer is off