Hung 2 Yardbirds on the Bronco
Cut a couple chickens in half and dry brined them overnight. One got Plowboys Yardbird the other Willingham’s W’ham Original which is a new one for us but absolutely in the rotation now. We loved it, and don’t have anything else like it - savory with Worcestershire and citrus flavors- YUM.
I filled the charcoal basket with KBB and lit it with 2 Weber fire starters per OKJ suggestion and placed it in the cooker. I let it go 30 min with the top open and the bottom vent 100% open, and it got to this point...
Then I added a couple of pecan chunks, put the diffuser in place*, played with different configurations for the meat hangers, then closed the lid. 20 min later I had good smoke and the Bronco preheated to 390F so I got the chicken on at 10:50am.
I tweaked the vents once at the start and never had to touch them again. This setting had it running 325-330F for the next 80 min.
At 12:10pm the probe in the one with the biggest breast hit 165F. Checked them all quickly with the Thermapen and we were good to go.
This was some seriously juicy, flavorful chicken! Had smashed garlic rosemary potatoes with it. Giving a half chicken to the in laws and making chicken salad with the rest!
*Re: the diffuser I waffled back & forth, initially thinking I’d leave it out for a closer comparison to PBC chicken I’ve made numerous times. But I’ve used the diffuser on my previous Bronco cooks and noticed the drippings still burn if they hit it and still provide that smoke fog flavor profile, plus I get the benefit of more even heat distribution. Also, 2 or more chickens would drip so much onto the charcoal basket in the PBC it could douse spots. Glad I went with it this time and know I’m still getting the flavor. Still will probably try it without next time just to compare.
I filled the charcoal basket with KBB and lit it with 2 Weber fire starters per OKJ suggestion and placed it in the cooker. I let it go 30 min with the top open and the bottom vent 100% open, and it got to this point...
Then I added a couple of pecan chunks, put the diffuser in place*, played with different configurations for the meat hangers, then closed the lid. 20 min later I had good smoke and the Bronco preheated to 390F so I got the chicken on at 10:50am.
I tweaked the vents once at the start and never had to touch them again. This setting had it running 325-330F for the next 80 min.
At 12:10pm the probe in the one with the biggest breast hit 165F. Checked them all quickly with the Thermapen and we were good to go.
This was some seriously juicy, flavorful chicken! Had smashed garlic rosemary potatoes with it. Giving a half chicken to the in laws and making chicken salad with the rest!
*Re: the diffuser I waffled back & forth, initially thinking I’d leave it out for a closer comparison to PBC chicken I’ve made numerous times. But I’ve used the diffuser on my previous Bronco cooks and noticed the drippings still burn if they hit it and still provide that smoke fog flavor profile, plus I get the benefit of more even heat distribution. Also, 2 or more chickens would drip so much onto the charcoal basket in the PBC it could douse spots. Glad I went with it this time and know I’m still getting the flavor. Still will probably try it without next time just to compare.
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