Big Chief Smoker

[Cheef]

Against my better judgement after reading the reviews on the Big Chief Smoker I purchased one last Friday.
Marinated a batch of Bourbon Jerky in the Marinade Express and spent Sunday playing with the new toy.
I have to admit the quality of this thing kind of has me scratching my head a little. At first glance it looks CHEAP. But once I got to using it I kind of got the impression that it is one of those KISS principal pieces of gear. It does what it does VERY well with no bells or whistles.
I put in 5 pounds of eye of round, and got out a little over 2 pounds of jerky.
I've been making jerky for 40 years, mostly in an Excalibur dehydrator and I've always made good jerky. But this Big Chief amps it up 3 notches with the added touch of the smoke it delivered. Easy to use-simple principal of operation.
It took a little under 5 hours (with an outside ambient temperature of 90*. I'm guessing cold weather would be hard on it to do its job though.
My family isn't big on alcoholic drinks but this Bourbon jerky is going pretty FAST. Kind of strange--the bourbon flavor is still there but kind of hidden behind the smoke and an almost vanilla flavor.
Next up will be candied salmon and a batch of smoked trout.
I'm going to give the Big Chief 4+ stars for now and see where it goes when winter hits.

[EdF]

You know, if it works, it works! Glad it did for you!

[texastweeter]

it is great for fish, veggies, and jerkey. also does well with small batches of sausages. had one for a while and gave it to an employee that is a jerkaholic so he could add REAL smoke flavor to his jerkies.

[Powersmoke_80]

+1 on what TT said

[Mr. Bones]

Congrats on th Chief! Glad yer findin it to be a good cooker, an lookin forward to more info from ya, as ya experiment...
Thanks fer yer personal review, so far, brother! I lend much more credence to that, than what I might find, out on th interwebs...

[MBMorgan]

I've had a Little Chief (by Luhr Jensen at the time) for nearly 40 years. It doesn't see much use these days but it sure turned out a lot of great beef jerky and smoked salmon back when. When you need to worry about cold weather, just make it a blanket. I used a fiberglass water heater blanket (cut to size and taped together) and it works just fine.

[JoeSousa]

I had a Little Chief quite a few years back. It is great for stuff like jerky. We also smoked some lake trout on it and it was wonderful. I don't know if I would try a brisket or anything like that in it but for stuff like jerky and fish it definitely does the job and does it well.

[Cheef]

Joe Souza after researching the Big Chief I found out one of the biggest complaints on it were from folks trying to use it in place of a smoker for larger cuts. It has a Max temp of 165* which limits it to jerky, fish, and sausage ( possibly). I'm going to try it with a precooked spiral cut ham as I believe it will work perfect for that.

[treesmacker]

Yep, the Little Chief, I had one for years, is excellent for the price and what it does. It is basically a dehydrator with smoke.The smoke is achieved by placing shredded wood chips in a pan over an electric element. I made excellent smoked salmon and beef jerky in it. I once hung a small turkey from an S hook in it for Thanksgiving at Lake Tahoe (cold); after getting nice smoke on it, I transferred inside to the oven and it came out great. I gave my Little Chief and my WSM to my son after I got my pellet cooker. Don't hesitate to get Little Chief if you want a great jerky and smoked fish smoker. Also, WSM can't be beat if you don't mind tending to it, excellent smoker.

[New2Cue]

I’ve had a Big Chief for a year now and love it for smoking fish (dedicated fish smoker). I agree, it seems really cheaply made, but works really well. I definitely recommend it.

[FireMan]

Where are the PICS! We want pics! We want pics!
Hold that line! Hold that line!