Brand New to Smoking.........

Michael · July 19, 2006, 11:04:05 PM

Hey guys, a raw newbie here. A few weeks ago I had some BBQ/smoked meat at a friends house. He smoked/cooked it with a smoker he bought at Costco. The meat was pretty dry and tough. His pulled pork required strong teeth for the pulling..... I then recalled stumbling across the BS website a couple of years prior and I was impressed with everything I read. At the time I felt the unit was pretty pricey and I was already spending too much money on a landscaping project here at home so I put off purchasing the BS. Well after having a good taste of badly smoked/cooked meat I found you guys again and since my landscaping project is now complete I now needed a 1st class smoker to go along with my new patio.....

I bought the digital 4 rack BS from Chez Bubba and a couple of Bubba pucks. It arrived today and tomorrow I'll season it and start checking out recipes. I think I'll start with a chicken and slather on some BBQ sauce towards the end of cooking time and in the meantime I'll review a lot of prior threads and learn as much as I can. I look forward to learning from your experiences.

Once I gain some smoking experience I'll invite my buddy over for a real down-home smoked/cooked meal..... - Mike, Cypress CA

manxman · July 20, 2006, 01:16:52 AM

Welcome to the forum Michael, good luck with your new DBS and let us know how you get on. :)

Oldman · July 20, 2006, 01:55:45 AM

Welcome and good luck your first time out!
Olds

Habanero Smoker · July 20, 2006, 03:14:04 AM

Welcome to the boards. Let me know how applying sauce on the chicken works out. I have only applied sauce after I've taken it out of the BS and placed it in an oven or grill to finish off.

One suggestion, don't use any sauce with smoke flavoring added.

iceman · July 20, 2006, 08:50:38 AM

Welcome Mike; Ditto on what Hab said. I would finish it off on the grill if your going to sauce it just to crisp the skin up a bit. Sounds like your going to have a great time down there. Enjoy! ;D

Michael · July 20, 2006, 04:11:07 PM

Thanks for the suggestions. I saw a thread here somewhere showing how to butterfly a chicken and I did that. I didn't know if I should smoke it skin side down or not.... I put it skin side down and slipped a thermometer inside the leg/thigh area. I pulled the wire for the thermometer out through the damper as I didn't see a better way of getting it out to attach to the digital thermometer device.

I noticed that it wasn't generating smoke and I cracked open the door and noticed the puck had not advanced to the burner and I hit the advance button and it moved on over. I assume it should have immediatelly advanced after I hit the advance button three times. I noticed after seasoning the BS earlier that the last puck hadn't dropped off into the pan of water. I also noticed one of the aluminum pucks was stuck on the track. There was some burnt gooey substance there and apparently the puck became stuck and couldn't advance forward. Perhaps that is the reason it didn't advance my puck to the burner..... I'll do as suggested and finish it up on the BBQ with the sauce.

In any event, were presently cooking with smoke & heat......... It's been going for just over an hour and the internal chicken temperature is presently 131 degrees. I figure I'll remove it when it reaches 160 and then toss it on the BBQ and finish it there.

Oldman · July 20, 2006, 05:45:23 PM

QuoteI assume it should have immediatelly advanced after I hit the advance button three times.

You have to allow it to cycle after each time you push the button before you push it the second and third time. If you did allow it to cycle between pushes and it did not move the next puck 20 minutes after the 3 cycle then call Bradley.

Olds

asa · July 20, 2006, 06:36:01 PM

Welcome to the forum Michael. We'll look forward to hearing about your produce. With regard to butterflying a chicken (or turkey), I'd suggest smoking with the skin side down as you did. The smoke should penetrate both sides just as well as if it was the other side up/down. The advantage to having the skin side down is that it might keep things a bit more moist. In grilling butterflied fowl, I would start with the skin side up for a short while, then flip it over and slather on your sauce of choice to the exposed seared meat side, sear the skin side briefly, then turn down the heat, and finish skin side down to crisp and roast/grill/smoke it as low and slow as possible so that everything comes up to ~ 160 degrees at the same time. Butterflying is a good way to get grilled chicken etc to cook evenly, especially if you can sear both sides initially and then roast over a lower temp until done.

Michael · July 20, 2006, 08:49:28 PM

QuoteYou have to allow it to cycle after each time you push the button before you push it the second and third time.

Okay, that's where I went wrong. I pushed it three x without waiting.....

The chicken came out quite tasty and it cooked much quicker than I thought. It was done in two hours with the oven set for 240 degrees and I thought it would take three hours. In fact when I came outside to check things out at the 2 hour mark I could hear my digital thermometer beeping. It had passed already passed the 160 degree mark and was 169.... :o

Even so it was very moist......too moist for my wife. I'll have to dry it out more on the grill in order to make her happy......

She likes pulled pork, so I guess that will be my next venture.