Did my first cook on the FEC100 last weekend...pig parts and a brisket. This weekend will be chickens. Going to do some halves and some leg quarters. The halves will be small...about 3 lb. chickens if I can get them.
The question: I have done hundreds of these things on stickburners & usually cook at 225-250 degrees. If I understand correctly, a lot of folks with the Cookshacks go quite a bit hotter. Is there any consensus as to how hot? I will of course be using a thermometer & cooking to temp.
Have never brined...but may if I have the time. I will use rub on half of them. Just experimenting here & all comments are welcome. Pictures of the results will be posted. TIA!
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Cooked halves last weekend and leg quarters today, but have not taken a picture yet! The halves I cooked as usual...225°-250° to an internal temp of 170°. They came out very well...maybe due to the brining? First time I had ever done that. At any rate, they were excellent.
and when I got back out to check on them, they were done done. Internal temp on one rack was 188° and the second rack was 195°! I figured they were toast, but they were fine. Maybe better than last week. Skin was actually almost crisp and the meat was falling off the bone. I am guessing that if I had been doing halves today that the breast meat would have been a little dry at those internal temps...but the leg quarters were not hurt a bit.