Pork butts and whole chickens together.

I have always wondered this myself. Waiting for the opinions to roll in. I would thin as long as everything is brought up to proper cooking temp it should not be a problem. Ive always have staggared poultry off as much as I could just to be safe.

why not just put a ban in between them? then no worries about anything dripping on anything

Yes, pork on top.:wink:

Pork on top chicken on bottom.

Good advice, pork on top and chicken on bottom. Chicken likes hotter temps so it's good on the bottom anyway.

Chicken always on the bottom. My girlfriend can't eat pork or beef, so any time the Q is rolling, chicken is always in the mix. I also have to put a drip pan in between because she doesn't want the pork dripping on the chicken, but I can imagine that the pork drippings on the chicken would be an awesome addition!

Safety wise will not be an issue as said above. I have a vertical offset and never tried this but I have smoked a pork butt and a brisket packer one time. As pork butt drips continuously and goes everywhere for so long I just didn't think would be a great idea to put it on top of the brisket so I put it on the bottom. It probably doesn't matter except your going to have a bunch of drippings all over the chicken which may be good!

Or, since you have a UDS, cook the yard bird at a higher temp in the UDS and butt in the vertical. Different cooking times anyways.

I would personally get the pork butts done early, and hold them and then put the chickens in after the pork butts are done. No cross contamination worries. Not to mention the butts need time to rest, and the chicken you can have done in less than 2 hours.

I've always heard poultry isn't to be on top. But between you and me, I've done it before and was fine. I figured at cooking temps, and the time on teh smoker, we're fine.

Now if you're putting the bird on for the last 30 minutes of the cook and then eating everything . . . I probably would advise against

Well I've heard of STORING chicken above pork, but as far as how they get put in the cooker, what's the difference?

Personally, if were me, if I were starting both at the same time, I'd put the chicken on top because it will be coming off earlier than the pork.

If I wanted them both DONE at the same time (or close) I'd probably do the pork , take it off to rest and then put the chicken on (as aawa suggested above).

If I was going to put the pork on and put the chicken on later while the pork was still cooking, then yes....I'd put the chicken on the bottom so that the uncooked chicken wasn't dripping onto the pork. STILL THOUGH....if the chicken was put on and had time to fully cook by the time both pork and chicken came off, then again....what difference does it make? You have cooked pork juice dripping on chicken or fully cooked chicken juice dripping on pork. It's all food safe at that point. Just depends on whether or not you want the chicken to taste of pork or the pork to taste of chicken (neither of which will really matter or have any real affect IMO).