Lessons from Saturdays Chicken

Cooked six chickens on the smoker on Saturday. Charcoal, with apple and cherry wood chunks. Learned a few lessons along the way.

First, 34 lbs of chicken pron.



Lesson learned: just because you can fit six chickens in the smoker, doesn't make it a good idea.

Had the temperature stable at about 345 degrees before putting the chickens in. Once the chickens were in, the temp was anybody's guess. With six chickens in there, there wasn't a lot of room for the pit temp probe, and it was affected too much by the proximity of the cooler meat. Next time I think I will clamp the probe below the grate. Also, with six chickens, the temp was less even across the pit than I have had with lighter loads, so I think I will try a max of four next time.

Overall, the chicken came out fairly good, Good flavor, nice smoke, a little over cooked on a couple of the birds. Meats been pulled, carcasses boiled down for broth, and about half of the meat made into hearty chicken soup for lunches and frozen. The rest will be used for dinners throughout the week.

Next weekend, I have about 15 lbs of pork butts for pulled pork!

CharredApron said:

Did you rotate the birds? Let'm fly

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I did not rotate the birds, but will definitely consider that in the future.


Thanks everyone for the comments.

rehless said:

Do you have a large family? I ask because there are only two of us and I hesitate to cook large. I cooked a good sized meat loaf and it lasted three meals. I do have a vacuum sealer, so nothing goes to waste and my mate uses all the chicken parts for soup. Good looking birds

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There's only the two of us at home, but we both work, so we cook large and freeze for lunches. We buy 16oz disposable (paper) containers and lids at Cash and Carry and freeze in those. They are lined, so they work for soup and work for reheating in the microwave. Just grab one out of the freezer in the morning before leaving for work.

About 2/3rds of the chicken from this weekend went into (very thick) soup. Chicken, quinoa, mushrooms, onion, celery, carrots, peas, green beans.

My wife also did about 15 lbs of beef for pot roast in a roaster, with onions, celery, mushrooms, potatoes, carrots.

The freezer needed restocking. Did 44 containers of chicken soup, 47 containers of pot roast. We have 15lbs of pork shoulder that I will probably smoke this weekend for pulled pork. With that the freezer will be well stocked with the trifecta of meats - chicken, beef and pork.

Won't need any more large cooks for a while, except the holidays when we plan to have family over for christmas.