HELP/ROOKIE

Hockeypuck -- "Welcome to the forum!"

There are several possibilities as to why you are having difficulties but my first suggestion to you is to toss the cookbook/recipe book that came with your 55 and come to the forum with questions and for advice.

Three chickens and baking potatoes in no way should take more than 5 hrs. Are you using an extension cord? Have you checked to see if your 55 is reaching its correct temps? To do this, take your digital therm and stick it thru a potato or a ball of foil and put it in the 55. Set the temp for 225˚. Once that temp is reached, record the temps every 15 minutes for about 2 hours. This will give you a good average of the internal temp of your 55.

If you are using an extension cord it "MUST BE" 12 gage or better and as short as possible.

When cooking whole chickens stick the probe in the inner thigh and take the internal temp up to 175˚.

When explaining difficulties here on the forum, the more details you give the better.

Let's start here and see if we can isolate the problem.

We'll try to help. Problem is we'll ask a lot of questions trying to help.

Agree, Wheelz, toss the book. Use it for flavor ideas, but not time/temp.

First you need to confirm that the smoker is getting to the target temp. VERIFY! AS you have a digital thermometer, poke it through the potato so the end sticks out in the air. Place it on the middle rack, turn on the smoker to the temp you set it at and let it go for a while. Do NOT worry about fluctuations, but it will settle down to a range near the temp.

Oh, and cooking chicken to 170, not 180 is how I do it.

And not sure I'd inject chicken with BBQ Sauce, it's too thick to leach into the rest of the meat and you'll have a bunch of needle tracks from the sauce. But even so, that doesn't affect the time.

I also don't (but others do) like to smoke their potatoes. In a humid smoker the meat of the potato comes out with an off color. But that's just us. I wrap them in foil and cook them on a much higher temp.

thank you for your response. the smoker is not on an extension cord. I have done the 2 hour test and recorded the temp every 15 minutes. Cookshack says it is running good. my probe was in the lower breast. I thought that is where the chicken takes the longest to cook. in regards to the 175 degree, well look how long it took to get to that on my previous post. my concern, is to make sure the meat is done and i thought the meat has to be at a desired temp. confused!!!!

i have also smoked a brisket 4.98 lb flat from sam's 225 degrees and it took 11 hours to reach 185 degrees. it was dry but edible

chicken is done at 160* in white meat (breast) and 180* in dark meat (leg)

I thought the new FDA/USDA rule was 165* in breast or 170* in thigh. Now I am confused again! (might be the refreshments)