WSM Smoking Advice Needed

I am planning to invite my office staff over to experience the joy of smoked foods.
Unfortunately, my experience with the WSM is pretty limited. I followed GWiv's 5-step guide and had great success with both the chicken and the ribs - have not made it to Step 4.
However, when I tried to smoke chicken and ribs together, the results were not as spectacular. The ribs were fabulous, but the chicken, which tasted pretty good, remained an insipid color which did not look very appetizing. I'm attributing this lack of color to the fact that the ribs were smoked at a much lower temperature than when the chicken was cooked on its own.

So, smoking gurus or is it gurus of smoking - I'm looking for advice on the following questions:
1. How I can successfully smoke ribs and chicken for the same meal? - buying a second WSM is not a viable option

2. Can the meats be smoked the day before and reheated on the smoker?
I was impressed with SteveZ reheated KC Style Burnt Ends at the picnic which got me wondering if the same success could be achieved with ribs and chicken.

I would welcome any advice.

Thanks.

Jyoti

chicken cooked at low smoking temps tends to come out with rubbery and not very nice looking skin..you are better off cooking the chicken at a higher temps (closer to grilling temps) if you want edible and nice looking skin

Head's Red BBQ wrote:chicken cooked at low smoking temps tends to come out with rubbery and not very nice looking skin..you are better off cooking the chicken at a higher temps (closer to grilling temps) if you want edible and nice looking skin

I agree with Head's Red. Ideally, I would do the chicken using a kettle if you have one accessible. Indirect heat at 325 (++) degrees should turn out better than it probably did on the smoker.

However, if I'm reading your post correctly, jygach, you smoked chicken to your liking on the WSM before, albeit individually. The only way you can "adversely" affect chicken by cooking something else like ribs with it in the WSM, is if the ribs were on the top grate, thereby dripping juices/fat onto the chicken. I put "adversely" in quotes because some may not consider that a bad thing . Besides that, however, I don't know what else could've caused your chicken-ribs smoke to be different than the original chicken-individual-smoke. More details comparing the 2 smoking sessions would help.

the sleeve wrote:

Head's Red BBQ wrote:chicken cooked at low smoking temps tends to come out with rubbery and not very nice looking skin..you are better off cooking the chicken at a higher temps (closer to grilling temps) if you want edible and nice looking skin

Rubbery skin is exactly what happened when I used the lower temperature needed for the ribs.

I agree with Head's Red. Ideally, I would do the chicken using a kettle if you have one accessible. Indirect heat at 325 (++) degrees should turn out better than it probably did on the smoker.

However, if I'm reading your post correctly, jygach, you smoked chicken to your liking on the WSM before, albeit individually. The only way you can "adversely" affect chicken by cooking something else like ribs with it in the WSM, is if the ribs were on the top grate, thereby dripping juices/fat onto the chicken. I put "adversely" in quotes because some may not consider that a bad thing ..

Yes, the chicken on its own was fine. The ribs on their own were fine. It's when I tried to cook ribs on one grate and chicken on the other that I ran into problems. Come to think of it, I did have the chicken on the lower grate which I thought was hotter - obviously, I was wrong!

Could I smoke the chicken till it is almost done and then finish it on the kettle grill?

Thanks for your help.

Jyoti

jygach wrote:Unfortunately, my experience with the WSM is pretty limited. I followed GWiv's 5-step guide and had great success with both the chicken and the ribs - have not made it to Step 4.

jygach wrote:Could I smoke the chicken till it is almost done and then finish it on the kettle grill?

Sure, kettle grill, gas grill, under the broiler even a blow torch to crisp the skin. But a tasty chicken dinner or a combo meal of ribs and chicken is not the point of the 5-Steps of the 5-Step program, simply a side benefit.

The 5-Step is about learning to build and have confidence in your fire, not about cooking a few chickens or racks of ribs.

Trees = Chicken
Forest = Fire

Michael Morowitz, one of the finer examples of 5-Step graduates, sums it up well in his post The Eighth Step

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:

jygach wrote:Unfortunately, my experience with the WSM is pretty limited. I followed GWiv's 5-step guide and had great success with both the chicken and the ribs - have not made it to Step 4.

jygach wrote:Could I smoke the chicken till it is almost done and then finish it on the kettle grill?

Sure, kettle grill, gas grill, under the broiler even a blow torch to crisp the skin. But a tasty chicken dinner or a combo meal of ribs and chicken is not the point of the 5-Steps of the 5-Step program, simply a side benefit.

The 5-Step is about learning to build and have confidence in your fire, not about cooking a few chickens or racks of ribs.

Trees = Chicken
Forest = Fire

Michael Morowitz, one of the finer examples of 5-Step graduates, sums it up well in his post The Eighth Step

Enjoy,
Gary

Thanks Gary. I am going to try emulate Michael's approach:
"I approached the WSM that day as a professional dominatrix approaches her customer: It was going to do my bidding. I was in control."

Watch out WSM!

Jyoti

Hi,

A while back, I bought a bag of mesquite when out buying hickory.

I am planning to smoke a rack of ribs. I am contemplating using the mesquite. I did a little reading to find varying opinions of mesquite. If you always used it, you love it. If you haven't used it, it may be considered a strong.

I am definitely in the rarely used mesquite camp. I did buy a small bag of it for an impromptu picnic. I was surprised by the resin (?) spitting. It was a rude surprise, which decreased my enthusiasm for using mesquite.

Any thoughts or tips?

Regards,
Cathy2

When it comes to mesquite, less is definitely more!

stevez wrote:When it comes to mesquite, less is definitely more!

I would tend to agree with Steve. Mesquite while offering up the smokiness that many people love, can get overwhelming very quickly, sometimes to the point of making food inedible. With mesquite you really need to watch both the quantity that you use and the amount of time the food will be in the smoke as it can and will overpower.

Hi,

When I prepare a rack of spares, it is in for a six hour cook.

When using hickory, it was three-four chunks of wood on the top. Should I reduce it to two? I'm trying to get a grip on how much less to go.

Thanks!

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

When I prepare a rack of spares, it is in for a six hour cook.

When using hickory, it was three-four chunks of wood on the top. Should I reduce it to two? I'm trying to get a grip on how much less to go.

Thanks!

Regards,
Cathy2

Yes, and make sure the mesquite is well lit and burning clean before exposing your meat to it. Mesquite can tend to be somewhat acrid. Even more so if it's not burning cleanly.

You might want to try your mesquite first on something you won't be smoking as long - or even for direct cooking. I like it for grilling steaks, not so much for smoking chicken.

stevez wrote:When it comes to mesquite, less is definitely more!

Werd! If you normally are using 4 chunks of hickory I'd suggest going 3:1 (or *maybe* 2:2 if you are feeling bold) hickory:mesquite ratio for your first cook. Mesquite can really overpower and dominate the taste - it's very easy to turn your ribs into nothing more than a porky delivery mechanism of mesquite, not good.