Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

I like pecan

 

I find smoking chicken isn’t like beef or pork. It takes on a lot of smoke flavor (like in excess IMO). So when I smoke legs, thighs, walkers etc I don’t use anymore than just what the briquettes provide.

on the other hand with a whole chicken I like almond or pecan like @la0d0g said. Mild and neutral and I expect the bird will have the cook time (hour plus) to temper the astringent flavors of hardwood smoke.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

 

By neutral I mean not mesquite

 

Thank you both for your advice.

 

another for apple

 

That went well…

 

Im assuming yall brine the chicken? Ive made some beautiful and tasty chicken. Making sure the skin is crispy and not rubbery has been the hard part for me in the past.

 

Higher heat

 

Looks good!

 

Yessir I dry brined mine but only for a day. Usually I like to do 3 days, but I work with what I got.

This chicken skin was crispy, but still tough to cut but not chew. Any ideas on how to improve that?

 

What temp did you cook at? Lower temps (sub 300) will render the fat out of the skin, but also toughen it up from the moisture in the cooker. I do 400 for about an hour ish.

 

It was pretty high. 375-400. I was also using a water pan. Should I omit that for chicken?

 

I personally have stopped using a water pan on any of my smokes.

 

Yep, you should never need a water pan

 

Someone posted this along the way, giving it a whirl. No boil, smoked Mac n cheese.

 

It's a @Cold Iron recipe but approved by many of us!

 

Agreed, best mack n cheese recipe ever. It's our house favourite

 

All right. I searched and kept finding allusions to it, but can some one post the recipe or link? Or just tell me the basic idea?

You add some liquid to a pan of hard macaroni and top with cheese, or what?

 

@Cold Iron

 

Bless you. any advice on prep how its put together? Just mix things out evenly? Top the cheddar and hit it with heat at the end? Ive got questions!