Outdoor Cooking Equipment > Charcoal Smokers

Chicken Halves on a Hunsaker Drum Smoker

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Tailgating is my game:
IMO you did the right thing

pmillen:

--- Quote from: old sarge on May 26, 2023, 11:02:53 PM ---Always best to play it safe. You took the right course of action. Question:  Did the chicken taste good?

--- End quote ---

Yes, it did.  The smoke flavor was milder than I had hoped for.  The Hunsaker has a Vortex fire basket that is intended to mix the air inside the smoker to reduce hot spots.  But it's basically a unique type of heat deflector that prevents the chicken drippings from dripping directly onto the lit charcoal.  So it doesn't make the same kind of smoke fog that my Pit Barrel Cooker (PBC) did and doesn't flavor the chicken in the same way.  The PBC way is better.

I'll remove the Vortex fire basket for the next chicken cook.  I should be able to match the PBC chicken I loved.

akruckus:
The way chickens are raised in America can lead to some reddish near the bones.  Something about the feed and killing immature birds leads to this.  Nothing wrong with the meat, but always safer to error on the side of caution especially with chicken.

Pasture raised chickens are a different story.

pmillen:

--- Quote from: akruckus on May 31, 2023, 05:22:28 AM ---The way chickens are raised in America can lead to some reddish near the bones.  Something about the feed and killing immature birds leads to this.  Nothing wrong with the meat, but always safer to error on the side of caution especially with chicken.

Pasture raised chickens are a different story.

--- End quote ---

That was all new to me, thanks.

I decided to see what information I could find online.  I found some interesting information here.  "The bones of young vertebrates (animals with a backbone) haven’t fully ossified or made the change from cartilage to bone.  ...  Because the bones of young poultry are still porous, freezing and slow cooking allows some of that hemoglobin to move from the marrow of the bone into the surrounding flesh.  This may not be pretty, but it is not at all a health risk."

I am guessing that the bone would also be reddish, like my chicken halves were.

MJSBBQ:
Great information!

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