How many pounds of chicken breast in one cook?

[Nixican]

Ive been tasked with smoking some 20-30# of bone in chicken breasts this Saturday for my Mother in Laws birthday. I was thinking of using the grate AND hanging some of the chicken in my PBC. Does this sound like a solid plan? If need be I can borrow a friends electric smoker to help get it all done sooner.

[lschweig]

It depends upon the average weight of the individual chicken breast. If I was you I would try to figure out how many approx breasts you are talking about and then figure the space required.
I would also probably use a faux cambro.
Just my 2 cents worth.

[cwain8845]

lschweig . I second that. Just need to figure out exaclty how much you need and just go from there.

Nixican . Do you know how much your PBC can do at once?

[Nixican]

lschweig . I second that. Just need to figure out exaclty how much you need and just go from there.

Nixican . Do you know how much your PBC can do at once?

I am definitely planning on using a faux Cambro because Im just not sure how long its going to take to cook all of the chicken and I will have over 100 people waiting on me! I also dont know how much chicken will fit on the grate. Ill have the chicken today, however, and Ill measure it out at that time. Ill report back here and let you all know how it went.

[Jeff_Carley]

40 min or so for the breast, with skin, to come to temp with my PBC. I smoke chicken every week. I would, get another grate (any hardware store with BBQ stuff) and flip the grate stacking them now you double your cook at the same time.

[cwain8845]

Good luck Nixican ! Thats a hell of a lot of chicken.

[lschweig]

You might be able to rig a second grate above the standard one somehow, but don't use any form of concrete bricks or whatever for support.

Remember to keep us posted and send pictures.

Best of luck!

You should also be able to hook through the rib cage and hang at least 8 additional ones at a time.

[TheCountofQ]

Sounds like a job for a Sous-Vide. Pre-cook, throw in the fridge, and sear them off to serve. I'm told Sous-Vide is the "bomb" on chicken breast. Not that I've done one yet. My last breast purchase was 8 lbs= 11 breast, or approximately 3/4 lbs each. Good sized breast though.

[Nixican]

Aw man! Sous-Vide. I covet one of those devices!

[PappyBBQ]

Great idea!! Don't know why that didn't pop into my brain. Probably the best way to prepare mass quantities and then grill off! Gotta get me one of those SV puppies!

[PBCDad]

I tried hanging a small chuck roast on the rods above other stuff on the grate and I found there wasn't enough space vertically. If you are thinking of hanging 8 chicken breasts off the rods plus putting another 6 or so on the grate, I'd definitely measure it out beforehand. My gut reaction is you'll only be able to do one or the other.

[lschweig]

Breasts are not as big as a typical chuck. I would do a test with it and see if there is enough room to both use the grate and hang the breasts.

[JeffJ]

Assuming bone-in also means skin-on...

In the PBC - yes, hang and use the grate. Chicken cooks best in the 300-350 range. Consider cracking the lid early in the cook to get temps up above normal. If you have a smaller diameter grate with handles, consider flipping it upside down and placing it on top of the PBC grate as a Hover Grill. The PBC is designed to cook huge quantities of cold meat (I've seen a pic of Jerod Broussard hanging 6 briskets in it). Get creative and fill it up as much as you can. Just remember, poultry cooks best at temps a bit higher than what the PBC likes to run. But at higher temps it cooks quicker than what usually hangs in it. A full basket with the usual amount of lit coals should work well as long as the lid is cracked just a bit for higher temps - the coals will burn more quickly but that won't be a problem as this isn't a typical low/slow cook.

I don't own a PBC, yet (It's only a matter of time). But what I know about how it cooks tells me it's a great rig for what you are trying to accomplish with this particular cook.

[Jerod Broussard]

5.....but I almost modded to hold 6

[Jeff_Carley]

JeffJ is spot on. this is exactly what I was trying to tell you in short hand above. I have used this exact method many times, normally smoke a good 10-20 lbs of chicken every weekend. Its quick and last all week. Skin will be your only issue.

[Nixican]

Thank you all for the great ideas! Im heading out to get this party started! I even have a legit Cambro (my mom used to be a caterer) to keep my chicken warm as I progress. And of course, I HAD to purchase the Thermoworks Smoke device. I mean, a man cant be expected to cook for so many people without the right tools right? Right! I also picked up some of the competition briquettes from Costco as I heard that these also help to cook a little hotter. Im going to start cooking at 11 and hope to be done by 5. Wish me luck and Ill post my results later on.

[Jerod Broussard]

Bring home the bacon...urrr...the breasts!!!

[FireMan]

This might sound crazy cuz I'm not one of those modification or mechanically inclined guys, but what if you rigged something like a wire coat hanger & hung the breasts so they hung like a full rack of ribs? Theoretically you could hang 8 "racks" of breasts, don't know what that would amount to vs a grill full & a few hanging. Just a thought. Again, I'm not the sharpest chisel in the tool chest, but maybe.

[Steve B]

Just wondering how many breasts did you wind up getting? Sounds like you're gonna have a pretty intense cook there.

[Nixican]

Well, I survived! I started at 12 pm and finished up at about 6pm. I think we had 30 pounds of chicken with a mix of breasts, legs and thighs. My brother in law had brined them the night before and I just threw em on the PBC. I ended up filling the grate with as many as I could and then hanging 8 more pieces with each cook. The chicken came out amazing despite not being able to keep the heat in the cooker above 275 most of the time. Thank you for all of the suggestions!

Things I learned:

I've never known the cook temp in my PBC until Saturday. Ive always just fired it up and cooked using an instant read thermometer towards the end to determine doneness. This time I had the Smoke hooked up to tell me both meat temp and pit temp. I've been reading around here that a cook temp over 300 is best for getting crispy skinned chicken so that's what I went for but I had a hard time getting there. I thought that the competition briquettes were going to run hot but with the lid closed I was around 225 most of the time. I ended up using foil pieces to space the lid up and that helped to bring the temp up to around 275. I would see temps of 300 but they never stayed there. Any suggestions to get a more consistent temperature or is that kind of temp fluctuation normal on the PBC?

Ash catcher. I made a foil catcher with heavy duty foil and it looked like it was really going to do the trick until I went to lift it out and the bottom of the damned thing disintegrated on me and the ashed dumped out into the PBC. Im definitely going to be making a more permanent solution or buying the official PBC version.

I didnt get a chance to take too many pictures but here are a couple of the pictures that I did take. Enjoy, and please, if you have any further advice for me moving forward, I'm all ears!

Thanks again!

[TheCountofQ]

Looks like you really had your work cut out for ya!!

I don't use a PBC, but one looks mighty heavily loaded!! I wonder if it normally runs hotter, without so much protein blocking the draft and cooling in general??

[RonB]

Congrats on a successful cook. I wish I could help with your temp problem, but other than suggestion that you open the lid more, I haven't a clue as I don't have a PBC.