Half Chickens on Bronco—hang or not?

[Reds Fan 5]

Smoking chicken tomorrow for pulled chicken. Half chickens. Bronco veterans, what say you? Hang them or not?

[tstalafuse]

I have a fear that my meal will end up in the fire if I were to hang them, despite assurances from several other owners that I shouldn't be afraid, so I would lay them out on the grate.

[Reds Fan 5]

One of the reasons for my question.

[DTro]

If you have enough room use the grate just to make it easy on yourself. With that said however, it is fun to hang stuff in that cooker.

[Steve R.]

You can gain a lot of capacity by hanging. But that doesn't matter if everything will fit on the grate

[bmillin]

Agreed, easier to manage on the grate if space permits but If you need capacity hanging works quite well. I have done up to three whole chickens at once that way.

[Purc]

I have hung chicken halves and quarters and I have either double hung, or daisy chained the hooks to make sure nothing falls. I do that method on hanging ribs as well. Some people put a cooking grate above the coals just to protect any fallen foods from the coals.

[jfmorris]

Hang 'em high!

[mnavarre]

Beat me to it.

[mnavarre]

Never had a half chicken falll on the PBJr. Just make sure the hook's through the ribcage under the wing joint and you're golden, Pony Boy.

[Reds Fan 5]

Decided to use the grate. Plenty of space and, well, too lazy yesterday to mess with hooks. Chicken on the Bronco superior to chicken on the kettle, incredibly moist, perfect smoke flavor. KBB, pecan, 325 degrees. Didn’t worry about skin because I pulled it. Held in oven until teenager gets home from work. Took advantage of on going fire and put a pot of baked beans and skillet of Mac n cheese on the grate. Mac n cheese is a lazy man experiment. Prepared Mac n cheese from our local market deli, added some seasoning, giving it some smoke.