r/smoking

Friends, pitmasters, and students… I managed to pick up a traeger chicken throne for free today. Well it just so happens last night at my local grocery store they had 2 Amish country birds on sale. I feel the signs pointed at me to try it on this throne. I have never done this style before. For the most part I’m a red meat smoker. For Christmas I did a spatchcock turkey and it turned out 8.9/10 in my opinion. I’m thinking beer in the throne but I’m needing help of temperature, time, and recommended seasonings. Typically I’m a meat church guy but I’m open to any recommendations. Tips and tricks are welcome and I’ll be sure to post the results. Thank you everyone!

Because I'm trying to lose weight and this turned out amazing!
The details:
12lb Prime brisket trimmed and seasoned with kosher salt and pepper with a sprinkling of Lowry's on top. After trim and smoke weighed in at 6lbs (I used the meat trimmings for smash burgers that were also pretty awesome.)
Smoked in a Weber Searwood Pellet grill with cookin' pellets 100% hickory pellets.
Also added a few hickory wood chunks during the first four hours of the smoke to add another layer of smoke.
Started 8pm smoked at 180 for first four hours and then kicked it up to 250. Wrapped at 6 hours into the cook in butcher paper and used some of the rendered tallow in the wrap.
Pulled at 13 hours internal temp ranging from 203 to 199 and then stashed in a temp offset oven at 150. Until dinner at 6pm.
Easily the top item I've ever smoked. Smoke flavor on point, in fact better than any bbq joint that I can remember, tender and juicy. I'll definitely be coming back after my wallet recovers.

picked up this used XL BGE for $500. Couldn't be happier and I think the only people who understand how excited I am are you guys. This little guy and a cheap offset smoker has been holding it down for some time now but this big guy will take over for the most part. looking forward to smoking some beef ribs this weekend.

I’m in the middle of an upgrade to my Black Olive. Bought a Pit Boss controller replacement. I’m hoping someone can tell me a few things. Apologies for the questions, I can’t seem to find the answers myself. Can anyone definitely tell me what each wire does? The unit has a fan, auger and ignition, just not sure what is what? Can the ignition be replaced easily? Controller came with a new one if it’s compatible. The temperature/RTD probe I’m just going to have it sitting in the back of the seal as the two halves close. New to all of this (charcoal) so thanks for the help. Right now the controller starts and then throws a ERR error. White, Black, Orange, Red, and Green wires. Green was grounded to the controller when I removed the old one.

Very quick and easy cook

I'm smoking my second batch of beef jerky. My old way was to skewer the meat and thread it through the grates (see last picture). I'm fortunate to have a job that has access to multiple laser CNCs. After bribing some engineers with future delicious jerky, they drafted up my post-it note sketch. I am now able to load up the racks in the kitchen and conveniently hang the whole thing in my upright pellet smoker. And now I can load up 5 racks at a time! It's a game changer for my jerky making. Let me know your thoughts for improvement! Will post updates once it's done.

Smoked on my LSG 24x40 at 265 for ~2 hours over oak, seared off, then simmered in a store bought bulgogi sauce with some added onion and garlic.

Honestly insane. Highly recommend for something different!

16lbs untrimmed weight prime brisket from Costco. Trimmed and coated with salt and pepper. Smoked in Weber kettle at 250 for 7 hours before foil boat around 165. Continued in oven at 265 for another 5 hours as it had started to rain. Probe tender at 200-201. Finished in cooler wrapped in towels for 4 hours.

Had the boys over as it was too much meat for my household, did some burnt ends as well- was very well received overall. Worth it but takes up a whole day, not sure when I’ll repeat

Picked up a couple of 2” thick Prime Tomahawk Steaks from Costco and wanted to keep the cook simple so the amazing beef could do its thing.

I dry-brined them for 2 nights with Kendu Spice Co. Moon Rock seasoning with a little extra Kosher salt, then smoked them at 225°F until they reached an internal temperature of 110°F. I used the Chef's Temp remote probe, which helped a lot. After that, I finished it with a hard reverse sear in a cast-iron to build the crust and render the fat.

The flavors, color, and bark/crust were insane.

Basic process:

• Dry rub brine 2 nights with Moon Rock and a little extra Kosher salt
• Smoked at 225°F
• Pulled at 110°F internal
• Cast iron sear to finish
• Rested before slicing

The flavors and crust on this thing were unreal. Definitely one of the better Tomahawks I’ve cooked, and highly recommend it.

Thoughts:

• I’d pull closer to 115°F next time
• I’d give less to the cat (but he is so cute)
• I’d get more than 2 Tomahawks
• I’d invite everyone from Reddit to enjoy a slice

Once again, the boy, daughter, wife, cat, and I smashed them. No leftovers!

Picked up 1 of these a few months ago at Costco. $2.99/lb and Kicking myself for not buying 10 more…hatch green chili rubbed pork shoulder butt. Smoked 6 hours on pellet grill. Nice kick and excellent on tacos with some cabbage and grilled corn and stuffed poppers! This was 7.5lb, and very fork tender! Was a crowd pleaser for sure, got both kiddos to eat it too! Even my 5 year old who lives off chicken nuggets!

Sorry for the picture quality and presentation haha this was my 3rd time smoking a big piece of meat.

Overnight brisket on the Treager

So I’ve been smoking for a few years and I own a tree company, I basically have access to unlimited wood for smoking. I have hickory, red and white oak, apple, black walnut and more I can’t think of, are there any other good woods to cook with? No post oak in my state.

Only thing missing is the feeder tube. Never been fired up

Today I completed the pork belly burnt ends by How to BBQ Right.   It was a moderate success. Still delicious, but I would cut down on some of the cook time that he suggested.

The different phases you see here are the initial cubing, then after the initial smoke, then phase 2 where you put them in a closed pan with butter and brown sugar and honey, and then finally with his recommended glaze combination of barbecue sauce, apple juice, apple jelly (which as you will see in the pictures I didn’t want to do just apple jelly, so I turned apple jelly into apple jalapeño jelly,) and Frank’s Red Hot.

Modifications to the recipe, I would do the initial smoke of the pork belly a little over two hours as I did, but I should not have put them into the closed pan with the butter and brown sugar and honey for an hour and a half. If anything about 45 minutes. And then at the very end I did them open pan with just the glaze on them for a few minutes. But live and learn. Still very very good. Just not as falling apart as I like.  I did a little sampling after phase one of the initial smoking and they were absolutely perfect at that point.

Live and learn. Just wanted to share my experience. I will absolutely use this recipe again, but I took some good notes in Evernote to remind me how to change it next time.

If you haven’t seen the video of this recipe, you can find it here. https://youtu.be/nL82hlORY-k