Chicken Thighs and Legs

[Pistol Pete]

I have 10 bone in chicken thighs (5 left and 5 right) and 3 legs (2 left 1 right) that I plan on smoking tomorrow.

Tonight I'm going to rip the skin off, leaving whatever fat on and the bone in, and rub them with Mary's Cherry Rub.  I'll keep 'em in the fridge till late tomorrow afternoon.

My son-in-law told me they should take about an hour and a half at 250°F..  I will preheat my BDS 6 rack for about 45 minutes and turn on the smoker controls for 20 before loading 5 cherry bisquettes and 3 Bubba Pucks  (Remember Joe Bradley said you can't smoke for an hour and a half.  Hour and 20 or an hour and 40..that's your choices)  Press "wood" 3 times and we are ready to rock and roll.

I have cleverly designated my shelves 1 thru 6, from the bottom up  (The floor is 0 Canadian.  Like a building).  I am planning on putting my chicken on Levels 3 and 4. (I will dangle my Maverick between the two racks)

I am planning on having the damper 25% open  (That's 75% closed Canadian).  I have only one question.

Does any of this sound stupid?

Pete

Lack of judgement is my only fault

[Grouperman941]

With chicken, I'd leave the vent fully open. It releases a ton of moisture.

[ragweed]

My top vent has been wide open so long, I probably can't close it!

I leave the skin on when cooking.  Then take it off at the table.  I think it helps hold in the moisture.

Just my opinion.

[Pistol Pete]

Conspiracy theory.  Huskers just whipped their mortal enemy, The U.  And I get two replies..geographically significant.   So I got one guy telling me  to release moisture with an open damper, the other guy is telling me to hold moisture with skin.

[tailfeathers]

For what it's worth I also keep my vent wide open all the time. Long enough that is stuck there.


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[Habanero Smoker]

Without the skin on the chicken you can go with a small opening, but for that type of load I would go with at least a 50% open (50% closed U.S. :) ). As mentioned, cooking with the skin on keeps the meat more moist, and prevents the top layer of the meat form getting stringy; but if you cook with the skin on, open the vent to 75% to full open; at least for the first half of the cooking time.

With the Bradley it may take longer then 1.5 hours to fully cook.

[Pistol Pete]

Had I smoked yesterday, the wind was blowing straight down (according to my flag) at Zero MPH.   Today its coming from the NW gusting at 15-20 mph (24-32kph)  Its the Canadians getting back at me.  I'm sure they miss the Stanley Cup.

Thank you for your sage.  The skin was thrown away yesterday.  Now, i am more concerned about stringy meat.  If I mess up the thighs I'll be spending the night in the garage.  Hey, there's no wind in the garage.  Maybe I could move the DBS there

[Pistol Pete]

Got the job done but the performance was disappointing  (Hmmm, that could be the story of my life but there could be children here so I'll move on.)

In the end, I did 7 thighs and 5 legs. (They were stripped of their skin and rubbed with Mary's Cherry Rub then marinated overnight in the fridge.  They easily fit on 2 racks. There is no letting them sit in the counter to warm up.  This is chicken.  Internal temp 37°F

In preheat I was surprised as to how quickly my BDS6 got to 250°F by the Maverick hanging in the center of the smoke chamber (238°F on the Bradley wall mount.  Ambient temp was 68°F and winds had subsided .  My son-in-law does them on hos WSM and it takes 90 minutes.  My Brother, Habanero Smoker, advised, "With the Bradley it may take longer then 1.5 hours to fully cook."  Just like a dentist says "You're going to feel a little pressure", Habs gave me Smoker Code for "I hope you're not planning on eating early"

After 30 Minutes the Maverick read 189°F and the Bradley 218°F.  After 2 hours (120 minutes Canadian) the Maverick read 211°F and the Bradley 221°F .  I am very disappointed to the lack of recovery BUT I always weigh things using the Fun versus Grief Ratio.  Is it worth it?  Can it be corrected or is it more trouble than what its worth? 

3 1/2 hours after start, the thighs were ready at 165°F (both the Maverick probe and a Thermapen).  The legs were at 157°F and still needed another half hour. And the smoker temp just hit 225°F both on the Bradley and on the Maverick. 

They looked pretty, were moist, juicy and tender.  Most importantly Mrs Lucky liked them, so I didn't have to spend the night in the garage.  (Although by then she was so hungry she would have eaten a bisquette if I put some sauce on it. )  I had good electricity (only thing going on a 20 Amp circuit) and the smoker was protected from the elements so I need to come up with a solution to speed things up.

My instincts said, go to Sweden.  My pocketbook said, go to Ikea.  Everyone knows about saunas, right?  All I need is to fill the unused Bradley Racks with rocks to store  thermal energy during preheat. Ikea doesn't sell rocks.  My wife says I got them in my head.  I'm a newbie and I know some of you have been down this road before.  What do my fellow smokers think?

[tailfeathers]

A couple tricks to help with heat recovery: use boiling or at least very hot water when you fill your bowl. Also get a couple of bricks, wrap them in foil and lay one on each end of the v tray. I will sometimes even preheat the bricks in a 400F oven before putting them in the smoker.


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[Habanero Smoker]

.......My Brother, Habanero Smoker, advised, "With the Bradley it may take longer then 1.5 hours to fully cook."  Just like a dentist says "You're going to feel a little pressure", Habs gave me Smoker Code for "I hope you're not planning on eating early"

Excellent translation. ;D ;D ;D