Planning on doing 2 spatcock chickens on the Weber Smokey Mountain this weekend. I'm still learning everything at this stage so thought I would ask advice on time and temp
I've been researching online and seen everything from 250°F all the way up to 310°F being suggested as the best way to go. And cooking times from 1-4 hours. I'll be doing these spatchcocked so I'm wondering if that affects the method I should use??
Can anyone clarify what is a good method to use for my first attempt? I'm a bit confused and don't want to waste any meat
Depends what you're looking for really in terms of crispy skin. Typically chicken smoked at 250f won't crisp up but it will be wonderfully juicy and tender and you can finish it off over hot coals to crisp it or stick it under the grill in the kitchen!
Cooked hotter it will cook faster of course and should crisp up but you have to keep an eye that it doesn't go over and get a bit dry. Having said that 310f still isn't massively hot so it should be fine.
Personally I do chickens at 350f over direct heat but not on a WSM so that might not work as well.
I've done chicken thighs on the WSM, which came out good, but never a whole chicken. For whole chickens I tend to spatchcock them and do them hot and indirect on the kettle (breast meat farthest away from the fire). Salt-brining the night before seems to really help keep the breast meat juicy.
Running hot on a WSM will likely use alot more fuel, particularly on the 57 version.
I usually aim for between 160-165C (320-330F) until the chicken gets to about 65C at its thickest breast point, I then stick it straight over the coals for 10 minutes or so and it crisps up beautifully and gets to 74C.
I wouldn't add much smoke to chicken - I find a little bit of apple wood and a dry rub works really well. I spatchcock a chicken almost every time we have a roast (weather permitting). Never been let down by this method!
Don't worry about timing either, just cook to temperature and if it's ready early, wrap it in foil and stick it in a cool box. Just keep the internal temperature above 60C at its thickest point (> 60C is when bacteria stops spreading). You can keep stuff warm for hours this way (I use this when we're going to parties etc). I find for a small chicken it takes about an hour in total and a massive bird can take 2-3.
The US gov has an excellent food safety website that covers a lot the above (especially the safe temps).
