I know this topic has been debated periodically in these forums but I wanted to get some other opinions from you all. When I searched for previous postings discussing bark I ran across some older postings with forum members at the time split about 50/50 on the topic of removing bark or not.
I just finished smoking two chicken breasts using some apple wood chunks (purchased from CS). I used a little over 2oz. of wood total and two of the pieces had bark on them. My chicken came out black and bitter. It may be the worst thing I have ever tasted.
This is only the second time I have used wood with bark on it. The first time was when I seasoned the smoker. I used a cheap, fatty piece of meat, as suggested in the owner's manual, and it too came out black and did not smell very good at all. I chalked it up to the seasoning process and the cheapness of the meat but now since I had the same kind of result again using wood with bark I now suspect it might be the problem.
Just as a side note, for the seasoning process I used some of the wood that came with my smokette so it was a different kind completely.
Everything else I have cooked in the smokette, which has included brisket and babyback ribs, has come out superb and I couldn't be happier. For each of those I just happen to select all wood chunks with no bark
I plan to try smoking chicken breast again using the same seasoning, time and amount of wood sans the bark this time. I'll post back with the results in case anyone is interested.
Don
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