I've tried three times to smoke a chicken in my CS, and each time the chicken comes out nice and juicy with a smoke flavor, but I cannot seem to achive that fall-apart tenderness and pink flesh perfection.
The first 1/2 chicken I tried I put in a brine solution for about 6 hours and then smoked it for about 4 hours at 225 until the internal temperature was 165.
The 2nd attempt was basically the same except that I didn't brine it.
Then, today I tried doing a much slower smoke. I did an 8 hour smoke at about 150 degrees for the first 6 hours, and then I bumped it up gradually to 225 for the remainder to get the chicken's internal temperature to 170.
So, the question I have is this: what does it take to get the chicken to fall apart and/or have that classic pink tinted meat? The only thing I can think of is that maybe I need to smoke it at a higher internal temperature. Do I need to let it cook/smoke at an internal temp of 165-170 for a few hours?
Every recipie I've seen seems to indicate that the leg bone should have turned in it's socket by doing what I did with the 1st two chickens, but not even close. As tasty as the chicken was, it was far from falling apart. I needed a knive to separate it.
Thanks!
-Brian
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