Dry chicken on the pbc jr

[FireMan]

Yup! Cookin cinder block on wood. 👍

[tenphases]

I have 2 pbc's. One is magic and performs exactly as promised.

The other one was gifted to me by my mom. I think it was revenge for my teen years when I wouldn't behave properly, ran hot then cooled off quick, was temperamental, didn't listen to instructions, had to periodically have my lid cracked, but I loved momma unconditionally and always made sure that she was happy in the end.

That's my 2nd PBC, I had to learn it, it was not set and forget out the box but it is now. Experiment, have fun, you will get it!

[Dr J]

Dry brine with 1/2 tsp per pound of kosher salt, spatchcock, inject with an oil like butter, can add something like Kosmos moisture magic to injection, go to 160 internal carryover you’ll be safe

[Edward7774]

15-10-10 did it. 2 racks of ribs on Saturday turned out great. And today 2 chickens turned great also. Rib cook ran about 270 the whole time. Chicken cook opened the lid about an inch and ran between 300 and 335 for the cook. Thanks for the help!

[kill2grill]

Check your probes to see if they are failing.

[Dr J]

You can inject the breasts ahead of time either with a commercial one or make your own. Derrick riches .com has a lot of good recipes. You can also dry brine with 1/2 tsp of kosher salt.

[Huskee]

At first glance I thought this was the chicken in question

[fzxdoc]

Let us know how it works out. Chicken in a PBC cooked at 350+ish should be done in 1 to 1.5 hours tops. I don't have experience with the PBJ, though.

Try a single chicken cook next. Make sure your charcoal basket is full and well lit to start with, use one rebar or crack the lid to keep the temps high, and you should sail right through it and end up with a tasty bird with crispy skin.

Jerod is right--two chickens dump a ton of moisture onto coals, which is why you need to start the coals high and hot in the basket before adding the birds.

Hope you are happy with your next PBJ chicken cook!

Kathryn

[Edward7774]

Thank you for all the help. Going to try again this weekend

[saneric38]

I cooked a couple hanging in the junior a while back. Was at my Mom's house and forgot my thermometer. Had to rely on a couple of old gas grill thermometers which I was not very confident with as they are known to be inaccurate. Pulled them off at a couple hours. I had read the information Huskee posted about 150 for 3 minutes, so I usually get them off around after a few minutes at 155ish. Mom and brother said it was great. I was happy with the chicken too.

Recently, I have been grilling chicken and other things the the junior, so I shifted from hanging the chicken (although, so hang traditional at times)I use a part of a cinder block to raise the coals closer and cook fast on the grill grates. Don't have a kettle, so I made the junior work. Now, not in a rush for a kettle. Very juicy and delicious.

Edited a couple typos.

[Troutman]

I’ve run them up to as high 165* in my WSMs without much drying. Something else is wrong. That amount of time is way too much. I do 275-300* hanging half chickens and never exceed 1.5 hours. I’ll bet the OP’s cooking temps were too low.

[Huskee]

I haven't read all the above so I might be repeating some... but my advice is cook them hotter, 350+, then they will cook quicker and dry out less. Pull them when the breast meat is 150-155, carryover cooking will allow it to rise further but in a normal cooking environment 150-155 will be fine regardless. No, it's not heresy.

Pasteurization is a product of both time and temp, or more properly time spent at a specific temp, so it doesn't have to hit 165, that's just the instant kill zone for poultry bugs. To illustrate, you can eat it at 145 if it's been there 9 minutes. The texture might not be pleasant but it's safe. 150 = 3 mins, 155 = 1 min. The point is with that slow of a rise in temp of the meat you don't need to go to 165. In fact as you discovered quite often 165 is too dry for breast meat.

[Soonerpop]

I have a PBJ. That seems like a long time to get to temp. Perhaps crack the lid or pull a rebar as suggested.

[Jerod Broussard]

Chicken can cool the barrel something fierce. It takes a good lighting and airflow to keep things over 300. Two birds in the Jr. is a lot of water dripping on those coals.

165 is the proper internal for the breast, and hanging in the PBC should have the leg quarters a bit higher. Never had dry birds from the barrel, but I always run 350-400+.

[RonB]

I pull chicken breasts at 158°. Any higher and it tends to dry out. All the nasties are killed instantly at 158° according to the gu'ment.