Cold smoked a chicken, then finishing it off in the Big Easy

[_Bear_]

OK, I am experimenting here, I have a 5.5lb bird, I rubbed it in spices and let it sit covered in he fridge over night. This afternoon I put it in the BDS for 3 hrs with just the smoke generator running using a mixture of Cherry and Alder. Smoker temp never went above 48*F (it is 6* below freezing here). I took it out, injected the bird with butter and Mrs.Dash and threw it in the Big Easy (1st time I have used the BE). SO it should be interesting. Bird should be done in about 1/2 hr.

[_Bear_]

It worked very well, although I think next time I will hot smoke it, was not quite as much smoke flavor as I would like. A little dissapointed that it took over 2 hrs in the BE to get it up to 165*, but it was cool out, and the finished product was great. I have deepfried probably 50+ turkeys in oil, I will never use oil again. My next chicken will be smoked completly in the BDS.

[classicrockgriller]

Next time you need to raise the turkey up higher in the BE.near the top as possible.

[Habanero Smoker]

The finished product looks good. Next time leave it uncovered and let it air dry in the refrigerator overnight. That will give the chicken time to form a pellicle; which help with smoke penetration and adhesion.

[Ka Honu]

I agree that cold smoke doesn't impart as much flavor as smoking at a higher temp.  I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings but if it took you over 2 hours to do a 5.5 lb. chicken in TBE, you need to do some troubleshooting ("cool out" or not).  It should have been done in about half that time.  The good news is that it's usually pretty easily remedied.  Recommend you go over to the Sizzle on the Grill forum and check some of the posts on that problem.

[ArnieM]

Bear,

As CRG said, raise the cooking basket up off the bottom of TBE.  A simple mechanism I found was to use two 1/4" x 18" aluminum rods.  Use them to suspend the basket from the top of TBE.  There are several other ways.

I agree with KH in that something is wrong.  I blew my first chicken; 5 pounds, 2.5 hours.  The most common fix seems to be:

With propane and TBE valves off, connect TBE to the propane tank.  Turn on the propane valve.  Then turn on the BE valve.  Ignite.  You have to do it in that order.

I did a 15 pound unsmoked turkey for Thanksgiving.  It went 10 minutes per pound and came out great.

[Quarlow]

Hey bear I was under the impression that it would cook alot faster than it did also but I still cooked my first chicken in 70 minutes. I have had the problem with my BBQ were if you turn the dial on before you open the tank it won't work. Glad you liked the BE I won't cook a chicken anyway else now. That said I came home tonight to chicken cooked in the oven and it just wasn't right. Good luck with it.