First cook with my ghetto vortex. Chicken drumsticks with pR0n

[effinUker]

Not to hijack this thread, but so then, what about smoked wings, smoked legs ... cook them slow like that and them move them to a Vortex-enabled grill for a crisp high heat finish?

Hijack away - let's turn this into a class on chicken.  (BTW - I don't know the answer to your question)

[effinUker]

Not to hijack this thread, but so then, what about smoked wings, smoked legs ... cook them slow like that and them move them to a Vortex-enabled grill for a crisp high heat finish?

Interesting bit here, says kind of what you described.  Text is below, here' the source link: http://tmbbq.com/low-and-fast/

The chicken I did on its own because I wanted to give it some smoke flavor. I added some wood chips directly onto the charcoal during the indirect heat portion of the cook. I routinely make fun of wood chips as a fuel source because it's usually a discussion about smoking meat. What I was doing with the wood chips in this situation was adding smoke flavor to grilled meat, not smoking it, and wood chips work well for this.

Once the chicken reached an internal temperature of 150, I flipped it to the hot side with the skin side down. The best part about cooking chicken like this is the golden crust that results. The skin doesn't get too charred because of the short time over direct heat, but it does get super crisp because it was getting nice and dry during the first part of the cook. It solves the conundrum that you often get with smoked chicken which is a choice between juicy meat or crispy skin. With this method you get both.

[addicted-to-smoke]

OK that's about what I thought, thanks. I've used chips in that way several times, even when not cooking low and slow.

You only get a few minutes of smoke because they burn up fast but a lot of the time that's all it takes. I'm considering using either a smoker box or tin foil of chips on the cooking grate for a mellower, longer smoke. When I've used a foil pouch of chips right on the coals they burn up sort of in-between the two extremes I guess.

[1buckie]

@addicted-to-smoke

Chicken sucks up smoke like crazy (you likely know this already.....so does any ground meat, so like that meatloaf you were asking about elsewhere.....a handful of dry chips, either side, couple times during a fairly short cook & you get a nice rich smoke flavoring (on the outer crust or skin layer mostly)....chicken, duck & other birds, I would imagine, turkeys, a lot of sausage, burgers....all that stuff takes it quick......

Realistically, most of the stuff we're doing, even the long, low cooks on pork butt & such, are just flavoring with smoke.....

Cured meats like sausages various bacon types & stuff that is actually cured using Prague powder, cure #1 & 2, or Tenderquick & 'smoked cured' slowly to a stopping point is maybe the true 'method' of smoking, as opposed to adding smoked flavor.....

Personally, I think this is why a lot of folks get confused by 'smoking' sometimes......it's nothing but baking in a charcoal oven with some extra flavor, not some magical old world secret science project.......

[Qreps]

Thanks for the info. I'll be looking for a stainless steel waste basket to cut down this weekend.

[effinUker]

FWIW - I read in another thread yesterday (maybe on the bretheren) the dimensions for the big one are 12" at the base, and 8" at the top. Last night at a thrift store, I grabbed an old steel angel food cake pan yesterday because the dimensions are right on. Gonna make a bigger one out of it.

[Jack Fate]

Mine is 9.5"x8" 3.75"tall

Good for wings but too tall for wok

I believe I need about 3 sizes