First smoke: Chicken

[MechMedic130]

Hey all, I've decided to make my first smoke a Chicken and need some advice. The weather gods look like they are willing to give me a rain break on Tuesday(today is Sunday). I've got a 6 lb roasting chicken, whats the best way to go about prepping this bad boy, and any links or tips on how to make my first smoke a success would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[classicrockgriller]

I would split it in half.

makes cooking it faster and easier.

[KevinG]

Here's what I did with one of mine.

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=14104.0

[MechMedic130]

how long do you let it thaw before injecting or brining it?

[KevinG]

I let it sit in the fridge for about 4 days.

[MechMedic130]

Dang, I only have 2 days before I planned on smoking. Would letting it thaw out of the fridge for one day then a day in the fridge do the trick you think?

[3rensho]

Just did three chickens.  Cut out back bone, split in half, brined overnight and then gave them three hours of apple at 225 and finished to an IT of 160 in the thigh.  Beautiful color and they taste great.

[MechMedic130]

I'm probably gonna go Cherry wood since the only thing I bought was the variety pack and it doesn't have apple. I've found the hardest thing to do since getting my smoker is try and get some decent weather to match up with my work schedule. It's been all rain on my days off it seems. It's making it hard to actually plan out some time to smoke.

[KevinG]

Mine was frozen pretty solid, it might not take that long. You can also speed thawing by placing the packaged chicken under running water, or the microwave (blah). Just make sure not to warm it up too bad, don't want them microbes working against you.