First, let me say that the chicken was orgasmicly good.
I brined it for 2 hours followed by hot-smoking for 5 hours at 200 degrees. I had a remote thermometer inserted into the thigh meat and so when it hit 170 degrees I pulled the bird out and carved it. It was done to perfection. The skin was dark in color but I'd been warned about that. The flavor of the meat was excellent.
My only complaint was that the skin was a tiny bit tough. When I roast a chicken in the oven the skin thins out at gets kind of crackly and is easy to tear off and chew. This one was tough enough that I'd almost want to remove the skin form the big pieces before serving.
Comments?
This is normal. When cooking chicken at lower temps(below 300F) you are going to get chewy skin. You can smoke it for a few hours in the Bradley and then finish it in the oven at 350F to get the skin you want.
What Muebe said. Chicken or turkey finished in a 350 oven makes the skin so crisp I usually eat half of it off the bird while I'm carving it!
Or you can convince yourself that you need a Charbroil Big Easy oil free turkey fryer to finish it in. Under a hundred bucks and I love mine. The basket fits perfectly in a bradley so you can smoke the transfer to the fryer in the same basket.
Either way, I would take the chicken out of the smoker 5-8 degrees before your desired temp.
Say 160F. Then you need a high-heat finish to crisp the skin. Oven, grill, Big Easy...