Question on Cook Time

cwolfing · April 27, 2005, 03:21:30 PM

Hello all - I am planning on smoking 2 beer can chickens this weekend. Last time I smoked a beer can chicken, the smoke time was approximately 4 1/2 hours for one 5 lb chicken. If I smoke two 5 lb chickens, how long should I expect the smoke time to extend?

Thanks for any advice on the topic.

Chase

Phone Guy · April 27, 2005, 04:41:09 PM

cwolfing,
I'm not the expert but the question would probably be.. When you say smoke time do you mean cook time? You wont need anymore smoke for 2 chickens than one. Cooking time maybe. It will take longer for the BS temp to get up to cooking temp with the more meat in it. Like I said I am not the expert, yet.

Mike

cwolfing · April 27, 2005, 06:29:46 PM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Phone Guy
 cwolfing,
I'm not the expert but the question would probably be.. When you say smoke time do you mean cook time? You wont need anymore smoke for 2 chickens than one. Cooking time maybe. It will take longer for the BS temp to get up to cooking temp with the more meat in it. Like I said I am not the expert, yet.

Mike
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Hi Mike, I was speaking more of the cook time. What I was trying to determine is whether I should add another hour or so to my plans with twice as much meat.

Chase

MallardWacker · April 27, 2005, 06:40:57 PM

Chase,

First of all welcome, I have not had the pleasure yet.

When you do chicken in your BS you will notice something. That is that your temp will not recover very fast when you first put the meat in. Don't worry-this is normal. To me it is do to the fact of the greater amount of moisture present in chicken. To say that it will take longer is correct, by how much I'm not sure. I would kick up the heat a bit when you put the birds in, maybe even a lot. Also let those birds sit out for a while before you cook them. One thing you need to invest is a remote thermometer. I just bought two for 16.00 each at "Academy Sports". I know it is a national chain, maybe you have one in your area. I cook that breast to 165 and I think you would be safe.

SmokeOn,

mski
Perryville, Arkansas
Wooo-Pig-Soooie

If a man says he knows anything at all, he knows nothing what he aught to know. But...

Phone Guy · April 27, 2005, 06:47:39 PM

I would suggest a meat probe and make sure you chicken is cooked to 165 to 170 deg. The time this takes varies with the weather/temp outside and how often you open the door and the temp of the chicken when you put it in. I had a single prob digital meat thermometer but I upgraded to a Maverick ET-73 Redi-Chek. It monitors the meat temp as well as the smoker and has a timer as well as alarms when temp is to high or low or meat reaches desired temp. Whatever you do make sure you cook the chicken to an internal temp of 165-170.

http://www.thegadgetsource.com/011502013733.html

Phone Guy · April 27, 2005, 06:51:26 PM

SmokeOn,
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And I would agree with MW on this. Also I do not limit myself to Mallards but thats just me...

Habanero Smoker · April 27, 2005, 09:57:15 PM

MW has provided some good information. For whole chicken I cook until the thigh is 160 165 degrees F. I generally pull it out at 160, because it will rise at least another 5 degrees after pulling it from the smoker.

From my experience of smoking multiple chickens at a time, I would guess approximately 2 - 4 hours longer, if your target cabinet temperature is 210 degrees F. Sorry I can't be more specific, as Phoneguy points out, there are many variables that can effect cabinet temperature and recovery times. And as MW states, chicken has a lot of moisture in the skin, and the release of that moisture during smoking will keep you cabinet temperature down.

JJC · April 27, 2005, 11:38:06 PM

Hi Chase,

Welcome to the forum--don't be a stranger and let us know how things turn out: good, bad or ugly [8D]!

You've received really good advice so far, and I certainly don't want to complicate things. The fact is that the BS is very flexible and very forgiving. So feel free to change the temp if you want (Hab and others use 210F, some folks will go to 230 or more). Some folks insist on trying to do the entire cook time in the BS, others are happy to use the BS for the smoke time (typically 3 hr) and then finish off the birds in a 350F oven to save time or crisp up the skin. The great thing about the BS is that any of these approaches will yield very good to superb results, depending on your tastes. As you smoke more with the BS, you'll quickly figure out what works best for you in terms of smoke times, temps, cook times, wood flavors, etc.

You will defnitely need a lot more total cook time with 2 birds, so you might want to either plan well ahead or have a Plan B (ie, use the oven to finish it off). I definitely secone the recommendation to use a Mav ET-73 or other good meat probe to keep track of how the cooking is going!

John
Newton MA

cwolfing · April 28, 2005, 03:49:01 AM

Thank you all for the help. Last week in Denver the temp was around 70 degrees and the bird finished in about 4 hours in the BS. I will take the advice and start a few hours early with two birds (especially since the temp will be around 45 degrees this weekend) and put the birds in the oven to finish them off is necessary.

Chase