My second try at chicken,, thanks to the help I gotten on here,, pix

This is how much wood I'm using the lill twig is hickory and the larger piece is cherry

This is just probably me, but I've not had good luck laying the wood in my wood box when it is laying on it's side, like your hickory is. It will char,but that's about it for me. I think it takes to long to start smoking and would rather use a small piece that set up like your Cherry does. Cut it in half if you want less, but it will start burning faster, laying like this,IMHO!

If I'm not mistaken,,i did reposition it before securing the door,,i will know for sure when the chicken is done,,,i refuse to open the door unlike my first cook,, lol

It's not so much the"position" in the box, but rather having the "end" of the grain of the wood touch the bottom of the wood box.If that makes any sense?

I've had smokes before that my wood was a little tall and narrow and as it burned it, one corner burned faster(over edge of hole). That made it sortta top heavy, lopsided, and it fell over. ONLY charred from that point on.

So I like golf ball size wood(on short smokes) and make sure it lays in with the end grain touching the wood box.Seems to stand up better and for longer, not as top heavy.

GOOD idea on leaving the door closed!

Ok,, understood,,, this lill smoker is more of a science than the off set smoker I have,,,, and I thought that it was a lill nerve racking,, lol,,,,, I'm sure I will get the hang of it,, if the chicken comes out good then I will do a small brisket on monday night,, to have for dinner on tuesday,,,, we will see,, 15-20 more minutes,,,,

So don't keep us in suspenders...how did the chicken turn out???

SmokinMAINEiac

Lol,, we just finished eating,,, the ones with the marinade had a nice lill sweet flavor to them, and the ones with just the seasoning was seasoned well,, my next cook with chicken will use the marinade and the seasoning,, it didn't have much of a smoke flavor even though my off duty supervisor thought it had way too much,, she hates when i bbq, so I lost that battle long before the seasoning,,,,, I'm very pleased with the outcome,,,i will post pics of the finished results

This is the finished product,,, they were dripping as I took them out the smoker, wa placed in oven just for 10 minutes at 375°,,, trying to crisp the skin

This was the chicken right before serving,, after spending time in the oven

That looks like some tasty chicken JAEJW1! Thanks for posting the photos.

I always get a pan full of liquid when I do chicken, but it is moist because I brine it first.

Sometimes the chickens will take on so much moisture they will have a delated look to them.

Anyone else have that problem and how do you get around it?

Thanks,

SmokinMAINEiac

Much of the chicken is "pumped" with up to 18% salt water when you buy it.Logically it will drain out.

Sandersons? is the exception at WinnDixie in our market.

Although chicken doesn't lend itself to slo/lo cooking as much as other products,that slows shrinkage.

Just a couple if thoughts.

Personally I would ditch the skin and you would pick up a lot more smoke IMHO. I've also been using Italian dressing as a marinade for chicken as well as some dry seasoning. The dressing keeps the chicken from drying out. (this is in an 055 which only goes to 250 deg)

Then add some of Big Bob Gibson's white BBQ sauce (make it yourself) and your supervisor might be a lot happier with the chicken.

Yep,

Gotta say that I can buy some local whole chickens that has 6% junk in it,sometimes on sale 2.50/bird. I will brine these with what I've learned in brining 101. It just don't seem to matter much if wash off,dry in frig, or throw straight on, so I use KISS, pull out of brine,rub inside&out,pam breast area, in the 020 on 300*.

Oh well, just love them like this.Slice breast with knife and eat the thin layer of skin, usually pull at 165ish in breast.

I usually use italian dressing to marinate my steaks whenever I grill..

I might give it a try on the chicken,,, and I have thought about ditching the chicken skin..

I'm currently marinating a berry small baby back,,1.98 lb,,, and I'm preparing to season a small 8.17 lb brisket,,, gonna star the smoke tonight at around 12am,, I just hope the raccoons don't come like they did when I was seasoning the shack with bacon,, lol... I will post pics of the robs and the brisket later in a separate thread