So, I decided to "go all out" and do 4 chicken halves from two 5.4lb birds on the PBC. Read and read tons of info on this magnificent site and figured I had this (I know, sounds looming). I can’t say it was a total failure, but was hoping it would have turned out better. Still learning my way around the PBC (this is about my 7th cook and second time with chicken).
What I did:
Dry brined the night before and left in fridge uncovered. Used S&G right before putting on cooker.
Followed fzxdoc lighting procedure (takes 30min for my PBC chimney). So 30-10-10 for me using the minion method.
Used my Fireboard for ambient (dangling roughly in the middle vertically and horizontally of the food) and food probe for the breast of one of the chickens.
I was aiming for 325min to 400max ambient as this was my first cook with a significant amount of dangling chow. I figured I needed to run it hotter to compensate for a fuller load.
The ambient temp hit 400 before I hung and dropped to 325ish while I finished placing everything and put the lid back on.
After about 7min the ambient temp dropped to 315 and I then cracked the lid (about as small of a crack it could be). It then got to 353 after 6min. I repeated this process every 7-10 minutes over the next hour or so with extremes of 315 to 380 while hoping for it to level out. It never did level, that’s why I continued to crack and replace.
About 50min after putting the birds on, the food probe hit 160. I figured (as well as how fast it was climbing compared to what other folks have shared with their experiences) that I should check the breast temps with the Thermopen MK4. For all 4 halves I got 145-150. Including the leave-in Fireboard halve. Now I admit I may not have given the MK4 the 2 seconds it needs as my eyes were fighting through smoke and awareness to not have the lid off for too long. I re-positioned the Fireboard food probe with little change to the 160 reading. So I decided to let it ride to 170 thinking if the MK4 said 145-150 then at "170" would actually mean 155-160 and so on.
So when the meat probe hit 170 (after 1hr 10min) I decided to pull one of them off (as opposed to fighting through the smoke) and the MK4 said about 175 in the breast depending on the placement. I then yanked them all off and got temps of 170- 183 except for the leave-in Fireboard halve which MK4’d at 165. That was the one I was basing the others off of since the PBC is supposed to cook so evenly.
Results:
The leave-in probed chicken was pretty much as advertised. The breast was juicy (even the top) and super tasty.
The other 3 halves (based off one of them as it was too much chicken to sample) weren’t bad when it came to the breast, but did exhibit a bit of stickiness on the teeth when chewing.
I did however sample the skin from all and holy expletive it was amazing!!!
The dark meat seems to be un-phased by the higher finished cook temp of the breast which makes sense based off the similar forgiveness of pork butts.
So where I think I veered:
I did not give the MK4 a full 2 seconds to give a true temp.
My leave in probe placement was off. I did try to make sure it wasn’t touching the hook.
Another thing I have notice in my previous simple test cooks is that the coals always glow on one half of the basket. I don’t live in a climate with a lot of wind other than spring which is only for a couple weeks in March or monsoon craziness in July/August. However, I’ve always noticed that there is a bit of a draft. So insignificant you don’t even see the flimsiest of bushes or tree branches reacting to. The bottom vent is always positioned 90 degrees from the direction of this draft. Maybe rotate the cooker so the vent is 180 degrees from the direction of the draft? After I pulled the chicken I rotated it to this position and after quite a while the coals did seem to start lighting more centrally.
Start of cook. Vent at 6 O'clock. Draft is from right to left.
Finished product.
What I did:
Dry brined the night before and left in fridge uncovered. Used S&G right before putting on cooker.
Followed fzxdoc lighting procedure (takes 30min for my PBC chimney). So 30-10-10 for me using the minion method.
Used my Fireboard for ambient (dangling roughly in the middle vertically and horizontally of the food) and food probe for the breast of one of the chickens.
I was aiming for 325min to 400max ambient as this was my first cook with a significant amount of dangling chow. I figured I needed to run it hotter to compensate for a fuller load.
The ambient temp hit 400 before I hung and dropped to 325ish while I finished placing everything and put the lid back on.
After about 7min the ambient temp dropped to 315 and I then cracked the lid (about as small of a crack it could be). It then got to 353 after 6min. I repeated this process every 7-10 minutes over the next hour or so with extremes of 315 to 380 while hoping for it to level out. It never did level, that’s why I continued to crack and replace.
About 50min after putting the birds on, the food probe hit 160. I figured (as well as how fast it was climbing compared to what other folks have shared with their experiences) that I should check the breast temps with the Thermopen MK4. For all 4 halves I got 145-150. Including the leave-in Fireboard halve. Now I admit I may not have given the MK4 the 2 seconds it needs as my eyes were fighting through smoke and awareness to not have the lid off for too long. I re-positioned the Fireboard food probe with little change to the 160 reading. So I decided to let it ride to 170 thinking if the MK4 said 145-150 then at "170" would actually mean 155-160 and so on.
So when the meat probe hit 170 (after 1hr 10min) I decided to pull one of them off (as opposed to fighting through the smoke) and the MK4 said about 175 in the breast depending on the placement. I then yanked them all off and got temps of 170- 183 except for the leave-in Fireboard halve which MK4’d at 165. That was the one I was basing the others off of since the PBC is supposed to cook so evenly.
Results:
The leave-in probed chicken was pretty much as advertised. The breast was juicy (even the top) and super tasty.
The other 3 halves (based off one of them as it was too much chicken to sample) weren’t bad when it came to the breast, but did exhibit a bit of stickiness on the teeth when chewing.
I did however sample the skin from all and holy expletive it was amazing!!!
The dark meat seems to be un-phased by the higher finished cook temp of the breast which makes sense based off the similar forgiveness of pork butts.
So where I think I veered:
I did not give the MK4 a full 2 seconds to give a true temp.
My leave in probe placement was off. I did try to make sure it wasn’t touching the hook.
Another thing I have notice in my previous simple test cooks is that the coals always glow on one half of the basket. I don’t live in a climate with a lot of wind other than spring which is only for a couple weeks in March or monsoon craziness in July/August. However, I’ve always noticed that there is a bit of a draft. So insignificant you don’t even see the flimsiest of bushes or tree branches reacting to. The bottom vent is always positioned 90 degrees from the direction of this draft. Maybe rotate the cooker so the vent is 180 degrees from the direction of the draft? After I pulled the chicken I rotated it to this position and after quite a while the coals did seem to start lighting more centrally.
Start of cook. Vent at 6 O'clock. Draft is from right to left.
Finished product.
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