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I seasoned the smoker on Saturday and noticed my Maverick temperature probe was reading 10 degrees hotter than the CS probes (had the CS and Maverick meat probes in a pan of water while seasoning). I had previously checked the Maverick probes in boiling water and they both registered at 213 degrees so I was reasonably confident in the Maverick readings.

On Sunday I threw a whole chicken (got on sale for $5) in there with small pieces of hickory and pecan and let er rip setting the CS at 225 degrees. I had the Maverick probe in the breast and the CS probe in a thigh.

The Maverick BBQ probe was steady at 236 degrees once the smoker reached temperature so I lowered the CS temperature to 215 degrees after about an hour into the cook.

I pulled the bird when the breast temperature showed 161 degrees and the thigh was 172 according to the meat probes at about 2 1/2 hours.

I didn't take any pictures but the bird wasn't pretty to look at being pretty much black on the skin (I rubbed CS chicken rub and some olive oil on the outer skin and shoved some CS chicken rub under the breast skin).

Wrapped it in foil for about an hour and served it up.

Observations:
1. The skin was rubbery and not very edible (expected based on feedback on this forum)
2. The breast meat was done to perfection. It was probably the best I ever had. We are a dark meat family but everyone wanted more breast meat.
3. The thigh meat was done but could have used a little more time.
4. The smoky flavor and the moistness of the meat was simply incredible. However, the next time I will back off the wood a little and probably just use pecan.
5. I am fairly confident the Maverick readings are more accurate than the CS so I will adjust accordingly in the future.
6. As long as you monitor temperatures, this unit really is fool proof. I do need to improve my foil lining technique however.

All in all, a good first time cook using a sacrificial bird and it gave me some good info for my planned PB on Mother's day. My family loved the results but my wife is afraid I will want to smoke everything from now on (I think there might be a job security issue there Smiler ).

Again, thanks to all the veteran smokers here who made sure I knew all the answers before the questions arose!
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Jim in Michigan,
Try brining your bird for a few hours or overnight is even better. Rinse the bird then refrigerate uncovered overnight. Cook at a higher temp 275°- 300° like Pags suggested, baste with butter toward the end. These teqniques will help tremendously with the skin. Hope this helps. Let us know.
Tom
Using your fingers or a wooden spoon, pull the skin loose from the bird and let it set all night in the frig, to air dry the skin. While you won't get crisp skin, but with Pags recommendation, it will not be as rubbery.

When you say "small" piece of wood, are we talking golf ball size?

You beat me to it Mr T....lol!
I really didn't care about the skin because I normally don't eat it anyway. My son was a little bummed but he got over it when he tasted the breast meat.

Smoking the chicken was kind of a spur of the moment thing as my wife found a chicken on sale when she went grocery shopping and when I saw it when she got home I said "let's smoke it and see what happens". I didn't have time to brine it or much else. She brought it home at 2:30pm and it was in the smoker by 3pm.

I will try some of the techniques for crispier skin suggested but if I can get that flavor and moisture of breast meat at the expense of the skin, I will take that every time.

As for the woodchunks, the pecan was about golf ball size and the hickory was a little bigger, maybe 1 1/2 golf balls. There was a few very small (OK tiny) charred pieces of wood left after I turned the smoker off. The hickory flavor was noticable, not so much pecan. I also seasoned the smoker on Saturday with about 4oz of hickory which may have added to it. Since pecan is such a mild wood to begin with I think I am better off not mixing the woods until I am more experienced at this.

As I said before, the chicken was excellent and I am definitely hooked on smoking meats in this smoker. The cookshack just makes it so easy and the only recommmendation I can make to a new cookshack owner is that having a remote thermometer (I have a Maverick 732) is a worthwhile investment.
Last edited by Former Member

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