revkab
is one Smokin' Farker
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2014
- Location
- Eureka, KS
A coupla summers ago, I built a large, direct heat, wood-fired grill to do this sort of thing. I often build a wood-fire on one side, do a quick brown (flipping often), then move to the indirect side, let the cook chamber temp to rise to 450* - 500*, and finish. Superb results, well-rendered skin.
I've tried several times to do chicken on my WSM 22.5, and I can't get it hot enough to crisp the skin the way I like it. I've tried thighs on both the upper and lower grate with no water pan. I've tried dumping only fully lit charcoal into the pan, and I've tried minion.
Yesterday I did three whole birds, about 6 lbs each. Put them on the upper rack with an empty water pan. I was afraid to do them without the pan because of the amount of drippings from three birds. I filled the ring about 3/4 with a combination of leftover and new KBB, then dumped about half a chimney of lit KBB on top, opened all vents wide open, and waited patiently for the cooker to come up to temp. About 300* F was all I could get during the pre-heat. When I put the meat on, the temp recovered slowly. I reached a peak temp of 284* F about 1 1/2 hrs into the cook, then it declined slowly. It was about 270 when the birds finished at about the 2 3/4 hr mark. All of the vents were fully open the whole time.
The skin was better than I had achieved before, but still not really crispy the way I like it. I love the low and slow pork and beef that I cook on the WSM, but I've pretty much reached the conclusion that it is just not the right rig for chicken.
Anyone have better luck getting theirs hot enough for chicken?