But then, I've always figured it's tough to mess up chickens. Compared to my old water smoker, I was surprised how dark the skin became, I'm guessing because of the more intense smoke environment. Only problem was that the aluminum drip plan slid over and I got rendered chicken fat all over my deck. I'm thinking of getting one of those deck protectors sold for grills. The guy at Home Depot said he should have some in a week or two and they only cost about 6$. What do others use?? Even if I keep my drip pan in place, I still want protection when moving food in and out of the smoker, as it always seems there's some drips somewhere.
A question on smokette capacity. Just putting two chickens in, each seemed to take up a good deal of one rack. Granted, they were about 5 lb apiece, but I like getting the roasters. I'd like to smoke 4 at a time. Is it okay to cram two on each on two racks?? I'm guessing they'll be touching each other and the side walls. Will this inhibit smoking and air circulation too much??
Also, I used butterfly my chicken by cutting out the backbone and then splitting the breast bone so that the chicken laid flat. It seemed to me that it should cook more evenly and perhaps expose more surface area to the smoke. Does anyone else try this and find that it helps?? Granted, I then lose the rack space I'm asking about above, but I could easily smoke three at a time, one on each rack.
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