Hello All!
I'm Andy, originally from Atlanta now living in Los Angeles. I've been smoking on a Webber Kettle for years, enjoying indirect and snake methods. However, I just got an Oklahoma Joe's Bronco and have been having fun getting to know it. I was originally thinking of getting an Oklahoma Joe offset but reading the product reviews on this great website convinced me to go with a barrel style cooker. I was considering a PBC vs OJB and decided I liked the ability to manage temps a little more on the OJB. I really like that the intake and exhaust valves, they control temp beautifully so far. I initially seasoned it with canola oil. My first cook I hung 4 racks of ribs, cut them in half so they wouldn't touch the heat deflector and cooked them for about 3/4 hrs at 275 F (gosh I can't quite remember the details!). They were awesome!
Anyway, today I decided to fire it up to smoke some chicken using one of my favorite Jerk Chicken recipes. I marinated about 10lbs of chicken thighs (bone in, skin on) for 24 hrs in the marinade. This morning I brought them out about 1 hr before the cook to get them warming up a bit toward room temp.
I fully filled up the charcoal basket and used two firestarters to get the temp up a bit faster. Took about 20-30 min to get the fire well lit with the lid open and intake open all the way. I then closed it down and let it heat up, once it was up to 325 F, I added a couple pieces of lump Apple wood and put the chicken on the grate. I was using a wireless thermometer on the grate which was cooled by the full grill of chicken, however the built in OBJ thermometer showed it still at about 325F. I opened up both the intake and exhaust fully to make sure the temp didn't drop too much, after about 15 min closed it back down to about halfway. The OJB thermometer showed a consistent 325-350. Checked it at about 1 hr, instant thermometer showed 155-160F so I knew the chicken was close to being done. I then re-opened up the intake and exhaust to raise the temp to try to crisp up the skin a bit, flipped the chicken, gave it 10 min and took it off.
Chicken was nice and moist with crispy skin and excellent heat from all those habeneros in the Jerk. I always make a bit extra jerk sauce to put on the side for some extra spiciness as the cooking process dulls the heat a bit. We cooked up some black beans and had a kale salad on the side. The sauce is also great in the black beans.
Anyway, I've been really enjoying reading the OBJ and PBC posts. Thanks FishTalesNC and fzxdoc doc for all the awesome posts and advice!
I'm Andy, originally from Atlanta now living in Los Angeles. I've been smoking on a Webber Kettle for years, enjoying indirect and snake methods. However, I just got an Oklahoma Joe's Bronco and have been having fun getting to know it. I was originally thinking of getting an Oklahoma Joe offset but reading the product reviews on this great website convinced me to go with a barrel style cooker. I was considering a PBC vs OJB and decided I liked the ability to manage temps a little more on the OJB. I really like that the intake and exhaust valves, they control temp beautifully so far. I initially seasoned it with canola oil. My first cook I hung 4 racks of ribs, cut them in half so they wouldn't touch the heat deflector and cooked them for about 3/4 hrs at 275 F (gosh I can't quite remember the details!). They were awesome!
Anyway, today I decided to fire it up to smoke some chicken using one of my favorite Jerk Chicken recipes. I marinated about 10lbs of chicken thighs (bone in, skin on) for 24 hrs in the marinade. This morning I brought them out about 1 hr before the cook to get them warming up a bit toward room temp.
I fully filled up the charcoal basket and used two firestarters to get the temp up a bit faster. Took about 20-30 min to get the fire well lit with the lid open and intake open all the way. I then closed it down and let it heat up, once it was up to 325 F, I added a couple pieces of lump Apple wood and put the chicken on the grate. I was using a wireless thermometer on the grate which was cooled by the full grill of chicken, however the built in OBJ thermometer showed it still at about 325F. I opened up both the intake and exhaust fully to make sure the temp didn't drop too much, after about 15 min closed it back down to about halfway. The OJB thermometer showed a consistent 325-350. Checked it at about 1 hr, instant thermometer showed 155-160F so I knew the chicken was close to being done. I then re-opened up the intake and exhaust to raise the temp to try to crisp up the skin a bit, flipped the chicken, gave it 10 min and took it off.
Chicken was nice and moist with crispy skin and excellent heat from all those habeneros in the Jerk. I always make a bit extra jerk sauce to put on the side for some extra spiciness as the cooking process dulls the heat a bit. We cooked up some black beans and had a kale salad on the side. The sauce is also great in the black beans.
Anyway, I've been really enjoying reading the OBJ and PBC posts. Thanks FishTalesNC and fzxdoc doc for all the awesome posts and advice!
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