Let's Talk BBQ
Outdoor Cooking Equipment => Grills & Smokers => Pellet Grills and Smokers => Topic started by: aliengriller on January 24, 2016, 05:49:01 PM
-
You may recall I asked for advice before Christmas RE: an electric smoker. AFTER LOTS of research and reading reviews, I settled on a Masterbuilt 30" job. It came last week, I seasoned it first and then yesterday smoked some chicken wing parts in it. (too tight to spend a LOT of money on some expensive meat for the first try) These were the two parts of the wings, not the tips. Brined them for about 2.5 hours in the morning, drained and air dried in fridge for a couple more hours. Then put them in a gallon zip lock bag with some canola oil and my version of Jeff Phillip's rub. Let those sit in there for a couple of hours and fired up the smoker with pecan. They came to temp (165) in just under two hours. I then broiled them for a couple of minutes each side to crisp up the skin some more. They were ok, BUT, unbelievable I know--they were too smoky even for me. Guess that's how we learn. Only did half of the frozen package, so will do again and probably not add more chips after about the first hour, which I did yesterday. NOW debating about what's next. Saw a beautiful brisky at Sam's, but didn't buy it. May go back and do that. We are hosting for the Super Bowl in two weeks. Think that would fit right in. IF I can't find the right one, will probably do a pork butt for pulled pork. Cheaper and won't take quite as long.
-
Over smoking, and rubbery skin are the 2 things that most of the electric "box smokers" have in common. This can be overcome of course - with some modification of the prep and cook methods.
Try this:
Brine - then rinse and dry off the wings or any poultry - and place int eh fridge in the open air - ( not in a bag an allow them to remain un-covered ) for overnight to 24 hours. THEN spritz the lightest amount of oil possible - and apply seasoning. Now cook.
As for smoke...use much less than you would normally use. The reason is this: If you look at the air thru-put on the electric box smokers - they do not allow for much airflow. They can't....If they did - they would not be able to keep a fairly even temp. inside the cooking area. Electric resistance heating is not very efficient, so - the manufacturers restrict the amount of air that can flow thru the box on either the intake or the exhaust side. So the dwell time for the smoke is greatly enhanced.... Net result being that you need considerably less wood to produce the desired effect/smoke profile.