Why is my chicken covered in soot?

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Had me going there, with the "Sooty Chicken":
Reminded me of the Old Days, when cruelty wasn't focused on too much.
They used to tie birds, like Chickens to a rope & lower it down the chimney.
The bird would flap it's wings, cleaning the chimney. Yup--That is a bit cruel, huh.

Bear
I'm not sure what to think of that. Sooty chickens, lol.
 
Agreed with the fire size. Keep your firebox door and dampers fully opened. I had an issue when I first started using a stick burner from using too big of logs. Of course the fire was too hot so I tried to control it with the door and damper...bad move. It was an ugly tasting product. I split my logs and use an old miter saw to cut them even smaller. Now I keep a blazing hot fire, more control of my temp and a clean smoke.

When you're using a stick burner you shouldn't even see the smoke coming from your stack. In regards to the wind, I smoke in it a lot, what works for me is to figure out which direction it's blowing and turn my smoker so the firebox is opposite of it.
 
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Had me going there, with the "Sooty Chicken":
Reminded me of the Old Days, when cruelty wasn't focused on too much.
They used to tie birds, like Chickens to a rope & lower it down the chimney.
The bird would flap it's wings, cleaning the chimney. Yup--That is a bit cruel, huh.

Bear
my father used to tie me by the ankles and lower me down I used to flap to:emoji_laughing:, only kidding
 
You're going to get conflicting advice, but I think it's from grease burning up in your smoker. How clean is it? Smoking grease, especially when you run hot for chicken is my bet. Especially if you didn't use a water pan to catch drippings.

As far as the skin goes, if you want crispy it needs to be as dry as possible. Brine the bird however you prefer, pat it fully dry with paper towels and then let it sit uncovered in your fridge for a day.
So I did a bunch of thighs today and to your point you said something interesting to me...cause my pit seems extremely sooty and greasy like if you wipe the grates with a paper towel...it's nasty charcoal black. I'm thinking i may need better flow.
 
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Smoking oil will do that. I've seen the same thing happen with pellet cooker heat deflectors.
 
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