This is nowhere near the level of a Root smoked TR...but it'll have to do. 
Put a whole chicken on the smoker Sunday evening. I have an electric smoker. It's commonly referred to online as the "El Cheapo Brinkmann". You can pick one of these up at your fovorite big box store for about $50. It's very Ron Popiel-esque...you "set it and forget it." Basically, it has one temp setting: "On". If you want to regulate the temp, you can open the side door or adjust the lid. In all seriousness, for easy smokes, the thing is great. I use a wireless thermometer to keep an eye on the meat temp. Outside air temp has a huge effect on cooking time. In the cooler months, a bird like this would have taken a good 3+ hours. Sunday, it took around two...but we left it on for a little longer.
I usually use applewood for my smokes since we have an old apple tree in the backyard that I can pillage branches from. I'll occationally toss in a packet of mequite chips as well. The smoker also uses a water pan to keep from turing what you're smoking into jerky. For this round, my wife threw in some cut up lemon and apples in the water pan. She also stuffed some lemmons under the skin of the bird along with some spices. The outside was seasoned with salt and pepper. All in all, it came out good! It cooked faster than I thought, so I dind't get to toss in as many wood chunks as I usually do. We'll have the leftovers in soup tonight. :grin:
Put a whole chicken on the smoker Sunday evening. I have an electric smoker. It's commonly referred to online as the "El Cheapo Brinkmann". You can pick one of these up at your fovorite big box store for about $50. It's very Ron Popiel-esque...you "set it and forget it." Basically, it has one temp setting: "On". If you want to regulate the temp, you can open the side door or adjust the lid. In all seriousness, for easy smokes, the thing is great. I use a wireless thermometer to keep an eye on the meat temp. Outside air temp has a huge effect on cooking time. In the cooler months, a bird like this would have taken a good 3+ hours. Sunday, it took around two...but we left it on for a little longer.
I usually use applewood for my smokes since we have an old apple tree in the backyard that I can pillage branches from. I'll occationally toss in a packet of mequite chips as well. The smoker also uses a water pan to keep from turing what you're smoking into jerky. For this round, my wife threw in some cut up lemon and apples in the water pan. She also stuffed some lemmons under the skin of the bird along with some spices. The outside was seasoned with salt and pepper. All in all, it came out good! It cooked faster than I thought, so I dind't get to toss in as many wood chunks as I usually do. We'll have the leftovers in soup tonight. :grin:
