Used the new turkey hangers with some chicken.

[70monte]

Yesterday I used my Turkey Hangers for the first time with two whole chickens.  The weight for both birds was 12.58 lbs. 

I used my small weber chimney starter which holds about 40 briquets and let it go for about 20 minutes before dumping the coals on the unlit in the basket.

I had rubbed the chickens down with olive oil and then put the pit barrel all purpose rub on them.  I then put them in the PBC and didn't check on them for two hours.  This is when I discovered that my Charcoal was probably damp because only about half of the briquets were lit.  The chickens didn't get done until about two hours later for a total cook time of about four hours.

The chicken still turned out good and had good flavor.  For those of you who have cooked whole chickens using the turkey hanger, what has been the average cook time?

I also got to use my new ash catcher which worked out great.  Here are some pictures of the chicken.

[TMB]

Looks good from here

[sliding_billy]

Looks delicious!

[akruckus]

Looks good to me, looks moist and still had some great color

[smokeasaurus]

Looks like the extra two hours didn't hurt one bit........great looking chickens.

[drholly]

Your chickens look great. I have not tried the hanger on chickens, but those have nothing to complain about.

[70monte]

Thanks everyone.  They did turn out good and were still moist.  I had a lot of fluid coming out while they sat on the platters.  I just didn't know if anyone else had experienced longer cook times cooking the chickens whole vs cutting them in half like Noah does.

The times I have cooked chicken by cutting them in half, they were done close to the two hour mark or maybe a little more than that.

Next time I'm going to make sure the charcoal is fresh and see if that makes a difference.

Wayne

[Pappymn]

Looks great to me

[smokeasaurus]

I have always split mine......cooks faster and more smoke penetration. Besides, I have always copied what Noah does in the videos 

[africanmeat]

Nice colour looks crispy from here . 

[DonR9]

Look good to me! I'm also one who halves and hangs them. Don't yet have the hanger apparatus.

[70monte]

I have always split mine......cooks faster and more smoke penetration. Besides, I have always copied what Noah does in the videos 

I usually do to but Noah did mention that the new turkey hangers could be used with chicken as well though he has not given any specific cooking instructions for cooking whole chickens using the new hangers.

Wayne

[teesquare]

I am just speculating here - but...

Where I live - it takes approx. 2 hours to cook a chicken that is split into  halves. And - I used the turkey hangar to cook several 19-20 lb. turkeys during Thanksgiving week. They took 3 hours, consistently.

Chickens weight 5-6 lbs.  The turkeys I cooked 19-20 lbs. The turkeys were whole, and the chickens were split in half. Approx. 4 times the weight, only took 1/3 longer to cook....

So, my conjecture is this: that the turkey hangar may help in the cooking process - because we now have the body cavity of the turkey or chicken that can act as a chimney or flue - carrying the heat and smoke tot he interior of the bird - at the same rate as the exterior.....I think.....?

Let the discussion begin! What do you think?

[muebe]

Smaller pieces always cook faster than the bigger pieces of food. Halves are smaller pieces than whole. Also you are increasing more surface area for energy to be absorbed. And takes less energy to reach the center of the meat when it's size is reduced. Therefore I conclude that halves cook faster than whole

And could the metal hangar that is in the cavity of the bird help?

Metal will transfer energy. The metal hangar is heated by the hot air and infrared energy inside the PBC. Then perhaps that energy makes it into the interior of the bird reducing cook time...

[Pappymn]

Nobody said their was going to be math and science stuff here. My head hurts