Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

I use a AMAZN cold smoke generator, couldn't be happier. I'd bet those are very nice as well. Smoked cheese and buck board bacon alone is worth picking up a cold smoke generator of some sort!!

 

I was watching a video on the AMAZN cold smoke generator. Looks pretty cool. I want to give making bacon a go so I have been looking at different ideas. Saw one guy use a big soup can and a new soldering iron poked into it to burn the dust or chips.

 

Smoked hot sauce in the making!

 

Oh wow, that looks good. I bet its hot though!! Good idea I might have to try it and give it to the guys at work.

 

Yup it's definatley NOT for the spice intolerant! But so tasty! When all was said an done I ended up with 47 jars.

 

Send one my way, I pay you. Looks friggin delicious.

 

Looks really hot!!!!! My eyes are watering and I am drinking water as we speak....There is a guy I work wit that would put that on his cereal...crazy

 

Cooking this tomorrow plus spares, chic thighs and sausage.
Can't wait!

 

Yummy!!

 

Long time lurker in this thread. I picked up a used smoker with a side box this summer and refinished it. So far the best $40 I have spent in a long time. Leave it to TW for to justify spending more money on toys.

So now to my question. I picked up a whole chicken as the very first thing I am going to smoke. I will eventually try something more expensive like a nice brisket, but want to start practicing with poultry since we are hosting Thanksgiving this year. I am planning on quartering the bird and tossing it on for about 1.5 hours. What I can't seem to find a straight answer on is do I need to brine the chicken first? I have the next week off so unless tomorrow is an absolute failure I'll probably try a few other things.

 

^^I have done a whole turkey and a whole chicken but I have never brined it. The chicken always comes out moist. Come to think of it every time I do chicken I never have a problem with it drying out. I think you might want to cook it for more then an 1.5 hours though. Practice on a turkey before Thanksgiving also....really good

 

You definitely don't need to. Brine adds flavor and moisture, but it's not like the chicken will be charcoal if you don't do it. I brine all my birds though.

 

I've been smoking chicken wings like mad. Done maybe 10 dozen in the last couple weeks. I can't figure out how to keep the skin from being rubbery though, and skinning 60 wings at a time takes like an hour, lol. I can finish them on a grill but I'm super jealous of the local place that makes killer smoked wings with tender skin you can rip right through with your fingers. I don't know how they do it.

 

Thanks for the input. I'll clean it, toss it on tomorrow and take as long as it needs to be fully cooked. Another excuse to enjoy the weather and a few beers.

 

Yep no brine here either. Just take your time this is a hobby of trial and lots of errors. Post some pictures if you can

 

Fire is started!

 

Polymerhead how hot are you cooking? I like to cook around 275-300. I don't have any issues with rubbery chicken skin usually. I like the thought of smoking then grilling to finish.

 

Definitely not that hot. More like 200 for 2 hours with chicken wings. Do you get any smoke flavor at 300? I feel like the wings would be done in 45 minutes and not have time to get smoky? But maybe that would alleviate the need to fire up the grill and finish there...hmmm.

 

I have not done wings per se but when I do chicken thighs I'm about 275-300 ish

 

Got some wings on the smoker now. First time. I can't wait to see how they turn out. 275 for 2 hrs.