Cooks Venture Chicken on a LSG Pellet Grill

[jeffdavidson]

Alphonse I’ve enjoyed reading your posts on the Lone Star Grillz Adjustable Charcoal Grill/Smoker. I especially appreciated your perspective to use splits only for the first 2-3 hours, then convert to a charcoal basket for the remainder of the cook. I thought that was brilliant. **Knowing what you know now, would you still buy the LSG 20” x 42” Offset for smoking?** I realize the capacity on the Offset is larger than the ACGS, but I already own a Yoder YS640S that can handle quite a bit. Looking for that happy medium of tending fire (for 2-3 hours), but low and slow using charcoal after that. I recently bought a Weber Kettle 26-inch + Slow ‘N Sear XL + Vortex + Santa Maria attachment, so plan to play around with that setup also.

[Alphonse]

I own a Yoder YS640S with the FireBoard and it tends to not do the oscillating as much as I see here. It does make adjustments in 3 steps and you typically can see that in the datalogs. I always suspected LSG was trying to get their control setup evolved to produce more smoke. As you remember, it took them a long time to get it to market so I am not surprised that they may have achieved what so many folks hoped for, more smoke.

[Redwng]

According to Chris G. the oscillating temp is because you get a better smoke profile at lower temps. The control probe is between the racks on the right 2" from the rear and about 2" long. Suggested they let folks know it will shoot up in temp at the beginning (and what to do) because they are trying to hold 225 to do the burn in and it will go over. Also suggested a "burn in" and "wrapped" (food wrapped) feature on the control as it wouldn't need to oscillate.

[Redwng]

The smoke profile (at lower temps) and pellet usage is pretty comparable to my Rec Tec. This was the first time out of five I had cooked something around 350 as I wanted to ensure the paint was set. Getting smoke out of the stack at 350 was amazing.

I did get some info off of Yoder sites as they have been running a Fireboard. Fireboard says the initial spike in temp is to get the cooker warmed up faster as it maintains a more consistent temp after.

[bbqLuv]

That does look like a "Dirty Bird"!
You Done Good.

[Alphonse]

Redwng , Thanks for the post and yes, I finally get to see a data log from the LSG!

From videos I have seen elsewhere, the LSG seems to put out more smoke than other pellet grills. Do you think they run a bit on the "pellet rich" side as compared to others?

It is interesting that the control strategy seems to be to overshoot the set point at the start pretty significantly and then drop back to it in three steps.

Where is the control probe located?

Look forward to more posts and your learnings.
Thanks again!

[DogFaced PonySoldier]

Man that just looks lovely.

And now you got me in trouble with the wife... she came in and saw me looking at LSG's website. lol

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I find the best time to get pictures that show the lighter constant smoke is at dusk. Otherwise a video will see it usually just fine. Looking forward to your in depth review of the LSG.

[Redwng]

I cooked a chicken (about 4#) from Cooks Venture on the LSG pellet yesterday and it came out fantastic.

I set the chicken in fridge uncovered for about 4 hours before putting it on. I lightly sprayed the chicken with some butter flavored cooking spray and seasoned with Kosmos Dirty Bird. Had the LSG set at 225 and cooked it for an hour before upping the temp to 345 for the balance of the cook. I pulled it when the breast hit 160 and the thigh/leg hit 170. The chicken had great flavor, wife said it was like a real "clean" taste and it is the perfect size for the two of us. Total cooking time was around 90 minutes. We bought the chickens through one of the new order deals Cooks Venture offered for their free range chickens. They have some good videos of their processes.

While the chicken was certainly good what was surprising to me was that I was still getting a light smoke consistently out of the LSG stack when the inside temp was hitting 350. The smoke wasn't like it was at 225 but I didn't expect to see any and that was flat out impressive to me (wife just rolled her eyes). My Rec Tec had no smoke coming out of the stack after it hit 260 which I expected for a pellet cooker. I took some pics but it is difficult to see at that time. I will include a pic of the Fireboard session.