Well, due to travel, my PBC has been sitting, unused, for two weeks. Drove me nuts! I smoked two, whole, 5 lb+ chickens on the turkey hangers, then smoked a couple dozen fresh brats and made bacon jam to go on them from another site. I don't know the rules on posting competing site URL's so I won't, but boy, was the bacon jam a hit! Google bacon jam, you'll find it.
I didn't bother with pics, because, well, how many pics of food in the PBC do we really need at this point?
But it went very well. In an attempt to use this "like an appliance", as Kathryn says, I followed Noah's instructions that came with the PBC to the letter just to get a baseline. Filled coal pan, counted out 40 into his smaller chimney, lit with 2 Weber cubes, let it go for 20 minutes, dumped on coals, then after just a few minutes for it to stabilize, rods in place, I hung the two chickens.
It worked! As advertised! No internal cooker thermometer, I just let it do its thing. Used McCormick's Montreal Chicken Seasoning, sauced last 20 minutes with "Ogre Sauce" I found on Amazon, absolutely the best selling BBQ sauce with well over 1,500 reviews, 95% of them 5-stars. While it says it is good on anything, I think while it was awesome on this chicken, I would not use it on other stuff, but I got lucky, it is an excellent smoked chicken sauce--highly recommended!
Lessons learned:
I kind of knew this going in, but I just wanted my first cook to be "by the book". For chicken, I think you should definitely let the coals burn for quite a while to heat this thing up. You all know that, it's in many posts, I will next time, and I knew I was not likely to get really crispy skin, but, again, I just wanted my first flight to be by the book for a baseline. From that I learned that I can likely use this as an appliance for pork roasts, ribs, beef roasts, etcetera for low and slow, but low and slow is not best for chicken. I also think halving the chickens and using hooks would have been better than the turkey hanger, but I had the new toys, so I used them.
I have the hinged grate and thought I could do sausage and chicken but no way you can hang two, 5 lb birds through that hole in the grate without them jammed together touching, and my sausages covered an entire grate besides. So while guests were eating the chicken, burgers and skirt steak others cooked, I smoked the brats for 20 minutes with a handful of hickory chips, then moved them to the gas grill to finish them quicker to get it to the table. I think for fresh brats it will likely take an hour to 1 1/2 hours to do them all on the PBC, but what a treat these were! I don't know what was more popular, people were raving about both the chicken and the smoked brats (partly because of the bacon jam, which was amazing, also).
I think the chicken was done perfectly, but the lady who cut them up for me while I tended to the brats thought the legs were a little red and put them in the oven for a bit. I didn't see them before that, but knowing the breast was 165 on the nose when I pulled the birds, I'm sure it was fine, sometimes, as you know, when you cut through the bones you get a little red from them at the joints even though the meat was really done and it makes people nervous, so no harm in the extra roast, they were still moist and juicy. But the breasts were, perhaps, the juiciest chicken breasts I have ever had, and I've been grilling for 40 years. Very tasty birds, indeed. I will peruse other chicken posts, but I strongly suspect getting this sucker hot and hanging halves is likely the best way to go with fowl. Save the turkey hanger for, well, turkey.
I am positive you can work with less coals if you do not overdo it. Others have advised against it, but holy smokes, those coals went a loooong time later, even with the lid off! Unless I'm aiming for an 8-10 hour cook where I'd follow Noah's instructions to the letter, I am quite sure you can fill the coal pan, take out at least a single layer of coals below level, and still counting out 40 for the chimney and get away with a couple big birds like this followed by a full hour of smoking sausages after, or a bunch of racks of back ribs, and still have plenty of fire left. I wouldn't take out more than a single layer, having a fire die on you with food in the cooker is a headache nobody wants, but a full pan of coals is overkill for some things.
Summary:
I'm looking forward to back ribs next!
I didn't bother with pics, because, well, how many pics of food in the PBC do we really need at this point?
But it went very well. In an attempt to use this "like an appliance", as Kathryn says, I followed Noah's instructions that came with the PBC to the letter just to get a baseline. Filled coal pan, counted out 40 into his smaller chimney, lit with 2 Weber cubes, let it go for 20 minutes, dumped on coals, then after just a few minutes for it to stabilize, rods in place, I hung the two chickens.It worked! As advertised! No internal cooker thermometer, I just let it do its thing. Used McCormick's Montreal Chicken Seasoning, sauced last 20 minutes with "Ogre Sauce" I found on Amazon, absolutely the best selling BBQ sauce with well over 1,500 reviews, 95% of them 5-stars. While it says it is good on anything, I think while it was awesome on this chicken, I would not use it on other stuff, but I got lucky, it is an excellent smoked chicken sauce--highly recommended!
Lessons learned:
I kind of knew this going in, but I just wanted my first cook to be "by the book". For chicken, I think you should definitely let the coals burn for quite a while to heat this thing up. You all know that, it's in many posts, I will next time, and I knew I was not likely to get really crispy skin, but, again, I just wanted my first flight to be by the book for a baseline. From that I learned that I can likely use this as an appliance for pork roasts, ribs, beef roasts, etcetera for low and slow, but low and slow is not best for chicken. I also think halving the chickens and using hooks would have been better than the turkey hanger, but I had the new toys, so I used them.
I have the hinged grate and thought I could do sausage and chicken but no way you can hang two, 5 lb birds through that hole in the grate without them jammed together touching, and my sausages covered an entire grate besides. So while guests were eating the chicken, burgers and skirt steak others cooked, I smoked the brats for 20 minutes with a handful of hickory chips, then moved them to the gas grill to finish them quicker to get it to the table. I think for fresh brats it will likely take an hour to 1 1/2 hours to do them all on the PBC, but what a treat these were! I don't know what was more popular, people were raving about both the chicken and the smoked brats (partly because of the bacon jam, which was amazing, also).
I think the chicken was done perfectly, but the lady who cut them up for me while I tended to the brats thought the legs were a little red and put them in the oven for a bit. I didn't see them before that, but knowing the breast was 165 on the nose when I pulled the birds, I'm sure it was fine, sometimes, as you know, when you cut through the bones you get a little red from them at the joints even though the meat was really done and it makes people nervous, so no harm in the extra roast, they were still moist and juicy. But the breasts were, perhaps, the juiciest chicken breasts I have ever had, and I've been grilling for 40 years. Very tasty birds, indeed. I will peruse other chicken posts, but I strongly suspect getting this sucker hot and hanging halves is likely the best way to go with fowl. Save the turkey hanger for, well, turkey.
I am positive you can work with less coals if you do not overdo it. Others have advised against it, but holy smokes, those coals went a loooong time later, even with the lid off! Unless I'm aiming for an 8-10 hour cook where I'd follow Noah's instructions to the letter, I am quite sure you can fill the coal pan, take out at least a single layer of coals below level, and still counting out 40 for the chimney and get away with a couple big birds like this followed by a full hour of smoking sausages after, or a bunch of racks of back ribs, and still have plenty of fire left. I wouldn't take out more than a single layer, having a fire die on you with food in the cooker is a headache nobody wants, but a full pan of coals is overkill for some things.
Summary:
- Halve chickens when cooking, and hang them on hooks, I think it will cook better than whole birds.
- HEAT THE THING UP FOR A WHILE BEFORE DOING CHICKEN WITH SKIN! It works as advertised, the chicken was tasty. But it would be better if you crank up the heat. For other cooks, follow the instructions.
- You definitely can get away with a few less coals if you are careful about your fire prep.
I'm looking forward to back ribs next!
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