Winner Winner lots of Chicken Dinner - First time with the DBS

[Cantle Räucherei]

Bradley Smoker Virgin Run – aka Here chicken – chicken...

Well, she's out of the box, set up, seasoned and ready to go.  First up is going to be 3 x 3-4 pound chickens, done a couple of different ways.  I am a huge devote of Cooks Country / Illustrated, and one of my wife's favorite grilled chickens is a grilled lemon chicken.  Doing one following a modified method of that recipe, and then one a form of alla Diavola, the last done with Jan's Rub fortified with a dose of ground chipotle powder made up by friends of ours in their OBS.

All three will get a 1 hour brine with salt, sugar and a clove or two of crushed garlic and bay leaf to season the meat a bit more deeply than just the rub / oil.  Spatchcocking will be the order of the day for all three.  I will separate the skin from the chicken breasts and thighs to get rub / oil under the skin, and help the skin render and crisp up.  2 hours of apple smoke with them breast side down, then turn over and run in the smoker on heat only until IT 140.  Then over to the grill 350'ish to crisp up and get up to 160/175 breast/thigh temp.

For the first half hour of smoke, a couple of naked corn on the cob will hit the top rack for a bit of heat and smoke, then cooled and set aside.  They will get grilled to finish and then rolled in melted butter, pepper, dash of Siracha, and grated Mizithra cheese.

That, as they say, is the plan...

*** Fast forward 6 hours***

Well, the plan pretty much survived intact.  Learned a few things, and had a great meal with lots of left overs.  The day was much cooler than expected (50 instead of 62), so that added a bit of extra work managing the temps.  Being a first time with the DBS, I peeked a bit too often as I didn't trust it to just 'set it and forget it', so that kept the burner working full out.  Maverick 723 kept me up to speed on what the temp was, in the cooler temps the built in sensor was significantly out.

The lemon chicken had a great smoke to it, the Diavola was good, but the spices muted the smoke quite a bit, and the Jan's 'Plus' was the hands down favorite for both Kathy and I.

Thanks to everyone who have left their experiences here, it helped me immensely with having my first outing with the DBS a considered success!

[Jim O]

Isn't it great when a plan comes together ! Incidentally,welcome .

[ragweed]

Welcome to the forum from Nebraska.  Great looking birds!!

[Smoker John]

Welcome, your meal looks great.

[watchdog56]

That looks great.

[seb bot]

Those are some tasty looking birds, glad to hear/see your first smoke was a success!