Am I Overthinking the PBC?

[sclawrence2013]

Thank you everyone for all your insight in helping me figure out this new cooker. Tonight I cooked 2 small half chickens and cut my charcoal in the chimney time down to 12 minutes from 20-25 in my last 2 cooks. I let the cooker do it's thing and after an hour and 20 minutes the chickens were probing 165-175 so I pulled them off and rested for about 15 minutes. This may have been the tastiest and juiciest chicken I've ever had in my life. I even had juices coming out of the tiny little wing flat. So, thank y'all again, and now I'm off to see what I want to cook next.

[fzxdoc]

Chickens are real winners when smoked in the PBC, sclawrence2013 . It's good to hear that your chicken cook turned out so well on your very first try with them. You'll be hooked (pun intended) from now on when it comes to smoking chickens, most likely making the PBC your go-to smoker for that.

You've received some good advice here, and it's good to know that you're starting your fire more thoughtfully, reducing the time that your charcoal stays in the chimney, for example. It only needs to stay there long enough for the top coals to just begin to ash over, for whatever charcoal you use. Sounds like 12 minutes worked just fine for your setup yesterday.

If you're running your other cooks at super high temps (in the 300°) plus range, you most likely have a lid leak, as others here have mentioned. A little leak can make a lot of difference in the temp of your barrel. You can use some spray cooking oil on your lid rim area to help gunk it up. When I first started, I crimped strips of heavy duty aluminum foil around areas of the lid that were leaking. Also using a rubber mallet (I used the rubber sole of a shoe) to tap (or smack) around the lid when you first set it on for the cook works well. Some people put bricks on their lid to hold it down, but put something under them so you don't scratch the finish.

Personally, I like monitoring the PBC temperature and keeping a log of my cooks. That way I can more easily predict when the food will be ready. I hate seeing those hangdog hounddog looks on my family's faces when the cook goes way longer than expected. Check out this sticky topic over on the PBC channel for cooking times/temps for various cuts of meat, poultry, and veggies.

I always monitor the PBC ambient temperatures using 2 probes, one on the vent side and one directly opposite side, about an inch or two away from the wall of the barrel at about the midway point of the cooking meat. Those two temperature measurements can differ from each other by as much as 40° to 60° or more during the course of a long cook, sometimes switching from being the hotter of the two to the cooler of the two. Just take the average of them, and your PBC will most likely be running right in its sweet spot, which is usually around 270° or so. I rarely have to fiddle with the PBC temp with the 2-probe readout method.

Have fun with your PBC. The learning curve for it is short and the payback in delicious food will last as long as your PBC does. Mine is going on 12 yummy years.

Kathryn

[Duanessmokedmeats]

The PBC Queen has spoken!

[sclawrence2013]

Thank you Kathryn. I've been hanging an ambient temp probe off one of the rebars about in the middle of the barrel, but had no idea that the temp from front to back could vary by that much. That is game changer info right there.