Temperature check with only 4lbs of meat (chicken).

[Thesneakyzebra]

So, I did a 4.12 pound chicken and did the probe as far away from the chicken as possible. I am trying to test probe location as well as thermal mass consumption. This weekend I will be doing two chickens to which I will test the temperatuer between or near the two birds and place a probe as far away from them and one as close to the SI probe. This smoke took about 3 hours and 15 minutes, it was brined. I set it at 250, there was some swings, more than I would like but within an acceptable range for a laid back cook. Again, when living in a analog world this is the way it is. Im cool with it at this point, but would like to see more out of this unit with a fully loaded smoker which I will get when my beloved PID comes in. As a side note, one of my chunks of wood caught fire and let out a bunch of not soo good smoke so I had to take it out and replace the wood, interesting, but no biggie. I had high hopes for this smoke seeing it was such a small chicken and it performed much like it did when I had a small tri-tip. See the pics below for some detail. The first pic is pretty blurry, my kiddos were jumping on top of me  ;D the next pic is the final product, it was moist and yummy! I did about 3.6 oz of cherry and probably could have gone to 4oz. The third pic is the temp range and just for fun I added the temp range with my rib smoke, it is not a real good comparison because it is 1 small chicken versus 3 racks of ribs and different probe placement.

 

[benjammn]

Looks like your temps are a lot better there, more consistent. Was the flare up around the 5:30 time?

 

[Thesneakyzebra]

The funky looking smoke occured shortly after I started. I am not sure if something was stuck in there or what. It was not a big deal as I quickly dumped what was in there and threw in some new chunks. Looking forward to the left overs for lunch!

 

[NDKoze]

I think you may have experienced what has come to be called a "Burp" or "Belch" where you get a big puff of smoke that flows hard for a short time and then goes away. I believe that this is because of the gases build up and are present that eventually combust. In most cases you are best off just leaving it go. This is pretty common. If you search on "Belch" you will find several threads about this.

One of the worst things you can do is open the door while your wood is smoking as the influx of air will most likely cause your wood to combust. Since you replaced your chunks it wasn't a problem in your case.

I am glad to hear that you had a good smoke and turned out a "moist and yummy" chicken.

 

[Thesneakyzebra]

I thought it was the blech and maybe it was but the smoke was brownish and had a strong overly bitter smell to it. I went into recovery mode for my little bird 

 

[NDKoze]

Yeah, your wood could have combusted if you had a really dry piece or two.

What kind of wood were you using? Hopefully not big box store kiln dried stuff 

 

[Thesneakyzebra]

I forget the brand but it is a good one. After only a few minutes what was in there was burnt to a crisp. It wasnt a big deal and it revored without issue.

 

[NDKoze]

Well, you recovered and the bird turned out well, which is the main thing.

I am going to be watching to hear how your experience with the PID goes. While I am not sure I need it for my regular smokes, I like you do smoke some big batches of fish, sausage, jerky, stix etc. that will benefit from a more accurate lower temp and less swings.

It sounds like you are definitely on the right track for success.

 

[Thesneakyzebra]

I have 1 chicken brining and 3 racks of baby backs ready to throw on the smoker tomorrow. This will probably be my last smoke before the PID comes in. I am hoping the chicken doesnt mess with the cook time too much since I will be going based off my previous cook that I had with 3 racks. I will keep the probe away from the meat as much as possible and try and group the meat as close to the SI temp probe as possible.