I finally got a fair weather day when I had enough time to test drive the new PBC. I stopped by Sam's Club to get some of the Kingsford Charcoal they have on special... 2x20 lbs for $14.98. They also has Boston Butt and Pork Loin for $1.68 per lb. So I ended up getting two boston butt and two roaster chickens. I thought that would be a fair test for a 1st cook.
I lit the PBC using a charcoal chimney which worked well and is what I'll use in the future. I know many folks use the lighter fluid method with no problem, but the chimney is just my preferred method of lighting coals. After 15 minutes in the chimney, I dumped them in the coal basket and left the lid off of the PBC for another 15 minutes while I was finishing prepping the butts. I was running a bit late in the day, so nothing got brined... just pulled from the package, trimmed and rubbed then hung...
Butts went on at 2 pm, chicken went on about 2:30. I used only the charcoal and did not add any flavor wood. I wanted to see how well this worked using Noah's instructions. The chicken was done in about 1 hour 45 minutes...
I was really impressed with the chicken... all I did was split them in half, rubbed them with the PBC's All Purpose rub and hung them in the cooker. About the last 20 minutes on the chicken, I cracked the lid a bit and ran the temp up to about 325 to crisp up the skin. I often cook chicken on my Weber Kettle using indirect heat then crisping up at the end... it's a great method and turns out some good yard bird, however the same or better result was obtained on the PBC without ever touching the chicken once it was hung... pretty amazing.
The butts hit 160 about the 4 1/2 hour mark, so I wrapped them and set them back on the PBC... about 7 hours into the cook they hit 200 degrees... I let them go on up to 205 and I pulled them and let them rest for a while. I noticed the PBC was starting to drop a bit and was running about 240 degrees at the end of the cook... the charcoal was about shot by then.
When I first lit the cooker... it was running about 380 degrees... then settled in about 285 until I cracked the lid to run the temp up a bit to crisp the chicken skin. Beyond that it ran 280 - 290 for most of the cook until the very end when the coals were going away.
The butts were done perfectly as well... pulled easily, tender... moist and flavorful. I had used the PBC Beef and Game rub on the pork. Very nice...
So my take on the PBC is that it's just as advertised... super easy to use and turns out great Q with a shorter cooking window then traditional low and slow. I like it and think I'll be using this cooker a lot...
I lit the PBC using a charcoal chimney which worked well and is what I'll use in the future. I know many folks use the lighter fluid method with no problem, but the chimney is just my preferred method of lighting coals. After 15 minutes in the chimney, I dumped them in the coal basket and left the lid off of the PBC for another 15 minutes while I was finishing prepping the butts. I was running a bit late in the day, so nothing got brined... just pulled from the package, trimmed and rubbed then hung...
Butts went on at 2 pm, chicken went on about 2:30. I used only the charcoal and did not add any flavor wood. I wanted to see how well this worked using Noah's instructions. The chicken was done in about 1 hour 45 minutes...
I was really impressed with the chicken... all I did was split them in half, rubbed them with the PBC's All Purpose rub and hung them in the cooker. About the last 20 minutes on the chicken, I cracked the lid a bit and ran the temp up to about 325 to crisp up the skin. I often cook chicken on my Weber Kettle using indirect heat then crisping up at the end... it's a great method and turns out some good yard bird, however the same or better result was obtained on the PBC without ever touching the chicken once it was hung... pretty amazing.
The butts hit 160 about the 4 1/2 hour mark, so I wrapped them and set them back on the PBC... about 7 hours into the cook they hit 200 degrees... I let them go on up to 205 and I pulled them and let them rest for a while. I noticed the PBC was starting to drop a bit and was running about 240 degrees at the end of the cook... the charcoal was about shot by then.
When I first lit the cooker... it was running about 380 degrees... then settled in about 285 until I cracked the lid to run the temp up a bit to crisp the chicken skin. Beyond that it ran 280 - 290 for most of the cook until the very end when the coals were going away.
The butts were done perfectly as well... pulled easily, tender... moist and flavorful. I had used the PBC Beef and Game rub on the pork. Very nice...
So my take on the PBC is that it's just as advertised... super easy to use and turns out great Q with a shorter cooking window then traditional low and slow. I like it and think I'll be using this cooker a lot...
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