OBS New to forum

[haellc]

Hello all,

I have been a casual user of my OBS for about two years now and absolutly love it. However I would like to get the most out of my unit when loading the thing full of meat like this coming weekend. I plan on smoking about 6 slabs of Baby back ribs & 4 half chicken breast. This leads me to believe that I do not have enought heat at times to really get my ribs nice & tender. So I put them in a foil boat and place them on my grill for about 3 hours to get them nice & tender.

Do any of you pros have any suggestions how I can generate more heat and move it around in the box to help in the distribution of the heat from top to bottom. I usually rotate the racks about every hour but with chicken I rather not have that dripping on  my ribs.

My lil Bradley:
OBS 2 years old with no improvements
4 Rack Unit

I have looked at the post on the fans & Raptor control option from BBQ GURU.

Please give me some direction Gents.

[Gizmo]

How much heat are you talking about generating?  You won't be able to move the heat around other than with the circulating fan you have read about, but you can move the racks around.  This has the adverse effect of reducing the cabinet temperature with the door open.  The heating element should be able to produce in excess of 250 degrees under somewhat ideal conditions.  Most smoking is done in the 200 to 220 degree range.  The larger the load, the more heat is being absorbed and the higher you will need to set the temp point (slider control in your case) to achieve that temp.  One of the members hooked up a higher temp heating element and a circ fan.  He had to make some modifications to make it all work.  Haven't seen a post from him recently indicating how effective the modification has been over more projects. 

Personally, I use the Bradley to put the smoke on the meat.  If I need higher heat or longer cooking time past the smoke period, I use other sources such as a grill or house oven.  For meat that needs to render or tenderize, I wrap in foil or put into a covered foil pan with a little liquid in the bottom, and then into the house convection oven.

I am not a pro, so hopefully they will be along shortly with some other suggestions.   :)

[Ontrack]

I am not a pro, so hopefully they will be along shortly with some other suggestions.   :)

Don't let Giz fool you, haellc. He may not be a pro in the sense of earning money at this, but he knows as much about Bradley smoking as anybody on this forum. You can learn a lot by reading his and many other experts posts. Welcome to the forum.

[haellc]

 ;D
Thanks guys, I am looking for just tying to maintain my heat at about 200-220 but my patio is on the North side & unprotected fro the Oklahoma wind. This is a real problem when i is cold or hot You try every thing you can to not lose your heat but is near impossible.

Theother problem for distributing the heat is I just dont feel comfortale rotating my red meat wit the white meat. I might just be paranoid of the drippings from the chicken or turkey gin all over my ribs or brisket. I have had problems with just setting the temp and leaving it and with the wind we have here I would check on it and the temp would be significantly different.  I have seen it drop 30-40 degrees no matter if it is hot or cold.

I am in the process of making additions to my backyard to deter the amount of wind that gets to my cooking area.

Thanks again guys.

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi Haellc;
Welcome to the forum.

You didn't mention if the chicken had skin. Chicken with skin adds a lot of moisture to the cabinet, which will also keep the cabinet temperature down. You may want to reduce how often you open the door. Opening the door hourly to rotated the racks will definitely prevent to smoker from getting up to temperature.

I understand your concern with chicken or turkey drippings falling on your ribs, but the finishing temperature of ribs will destroy all salmonella bacteria. When I smoke/cook chicken in the Bradley I always place the chicken on top, I have a lot of friends that restrict pork (and a few restrict beef) from their diets; to respect their wishes I always keep poultry on top. The only exception is when I am smoking something that you may not want to bring to a very high internal temperature, such as meat loaf; but even in this case, to get the internal temperature up to 160°F, the surface of the meat will still be well over 170° F; more then enough to destroy all salmonella bacteria.

[haellc]

Ok Haba. but how often do you rotate should i take it to every 1-1/2 hours? Yes the chicken has skin, also would it be better to have the ribs in one of those racks that hold em up on their side while in the cooker or just lay flat? I have always liked the layin flat on my racks but i could pack more in if i put ribs on the side.

Again you guys are tons of help. This forum is a wealth of info. 8)

[West Coast Kansan]

Haellc just a couple of thoughts.

The chicken will pick up the smoke flavor pretty fast - an hour to 1:20 is plenty of smoke for me. 

I think my approach to this would be to smoke the chicken and finish them in the oven to take the excess moisture and dripping out of your tower.  If they are whole chickens they can stay right on the crowns if you like.

The tower is then available for Ribs.  The 6 racks will likely take a good 7 hours to finish in the Bradley and it will be nice to not have to deal with the chicken when doing the ribs. You can also use different smoke flavor this way as well.

To help maintain temps a good hour of preheat prior to putting in the ribs will help if you do not follow right on the heels of the chicken.

Use hot water in the water bowl to give you good mass already warmed and not stealing energy from your meat.  I have started using the foil pans exclusively because the extra volume of water is nice on long smokes.

The wind is wierd but you can also use it as a tool so to speak.  The wind will act on the bradley at two locations.  The vents on the smoke generator and the vent at the top of the tower.

If you put the Smoke Generator in a position that faces the wind you might be increasing the amount of air flowing through the tower and out the vent - reducing the temperature. 

The vent can also set up a situation where the wind blowing over the top of the tower can pull air through depending on how it is blowing.

I have seen people post where they use builder bricks or oversize chimmney as a wind deflector around the vent at the top of the tower. This breaks up any pull the wind can create at the vent. You can position the bradley Smoke Generator grates so they are away from the wind or create a little screen to protect them.

It is very doable with the Bradely because it is well insulated, just have to manage the wind through it.

Dont block the vents on the Smoke Generator because you need the draft through the tower and dont close down the vent on the tower or that is trouble at the other end.  Try to adjust the vent on the tower so there is now visible smoke escaping at the seam between the generator and the tower. 

Wind and temps are wierd even in SoCal (where they barely exist from OK or KS standards) so hope it helps.  Gizmo and HabS have steered you well with the rest of your questions.

[tturaider]

What would be a good smoke flavor for chicken/turkey?

[Habanero Smoker]

I generally use apple, maple or pecan; or a mixture of any two.

[westexasmoker]

Oh come on ttu, you know mesquite is good on Everything!!!!    ;D

C

[Stickbowcrafter]

Welcome! As you can see, there's plenty of great info here and these folks are the best.

-Brian