How much smoke?

Okay a lot of you guys smoke all kinds of stuff and I am looking for a little help on learning how to use a smoker I just got a MasterBuilt digital smoker and the first thing tried were chicken thighs. They were cooked at 230 degrees for about 3 hours. Temperature wise they were cooked exactly right. I added a blend of hickory, cherry and apple chips, three times during the process, about 1 hour apart. Each addition was about 1/2 cup of chips. The wife claimed they were to smokey. Any advice for how many times to add wood chips for good flavor but not over powering?

Get a new wife.

Everyone’s opinion will vary. Personally I like more smoke over less.

The one thing I found for my taste buds was to only use one flavor of fruit tree. I found apple was the best flavor for me (and that’s who I smoke for). Some will say one kind of wood is better for a certain meat or fish and I might agree with them if I didn’t like the flavor off apple so much.

“Normally” I would keep enough wood smoking for the first hourISH. After that, it just slow cooks.

PS I don’t know of anyone that eats the skin.

A common error is to add too much because you don’t see the smoke rolling out of the smoker. Even when you don’t see the smoke, its usually there. Others may advise better on using the chips – I never use them. I use all blocks of wood with charcoal. So for me, its 3 to 6 blocks of dry wood / 5 hours of burn time

Good point Randy. I don’t use chips either. Soak the blocks for a couple hours and wrap in aluminum foil with a few holes poked in it.

Easy, clean clean up.

Brian Klawitter wrote:

“Normally” I would keep enough wood smoking for the first hourISH. After that, it just slow cooks.

This is what I shoot for too.

I also don’t have any problem with your first run on the smoker. Nice way to get it broke in!

-J.

Here is some good information on smoke woods. Smoke Woods

Actually, the whole site has great information on smoking foods. The site is based on the Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker, but the concepts will work on most smoke cookers.

Like Randy, I use only dry wood chunks and apply them at about the same rate as he does. I am not overly picky on the wood variety that I use other than I hate Mesquite and don’t like a lot of Hickory. I have been the fortunate recipient of wood from a snow damaged apricot tree, a wind downed apple tree, a plum tree that a buddy of mine wanted taken out and all the cherry, maple and oak scrap lumber I could ever need from work.

I have the same smoker and made the same exact mistake the first time using it. I eventually started slowly scaling back the smoke while it tested each batch of Jerky. For me, I will mostly fill the little tube with chips and run it for an hour or a little more before I even think about adding more. For Jerky, one load of chips is more than enough smoke for my taste. Slow cook after a load of chips and see what your taste buds have to say. My wife likes less smoke also…Unless it’s bacon, she likes it like she’s gnawing on a log!

I don’t have a smoker but use a regular Weber kettle grill to smoke. Don’t laugh. I can run that thing five hours at 240-ish before opening the lid to add more coals. Have thought about adding a temp controlled fan to the mix but I’m too, umm, thrifty.

I also go for about an hour of smoke. More can be too much. Or about one fistful of chips.
For chips, I use dry chips or small sticks of various flavors but stick to one flavor per smoke. One of my favorites is walnut when smoking beef.

Meat dependent, I think fowls can get by with even less smoke, especially drummies. I find that too much smoke can add a bitterness.

Also note, The day of smoking I don’t notice the smoke flavor as much because I’m around it all day. The day after smoking I can really taste the smoke. So if eating the same day, I’d take the word of the person that wasn’t near the smoke all day over my pallet because I know I’ll be more sensitive to the smoke flavor the next day.

I agree with the previous posts, stay away from Hickory and Mesquite as they have a stronger smoke flavor. I use a weber kettle grill also with primarily apple chips, and try and hit it with a lot of smoke initially and tail off as it gets a good smokey color to the meat. Also, soaking the chips really just delays the smoke, and steams the chamber until the water is gone and they can start smoking.

How was the skin on the thighs? A little on the rubbery side? I’ve found that if you smoke chicken at 325* or higher, the skin will be crispy like grilled chicken and there won’t be quite as much smoke flavor due to length of time to cook being shorter.

This may not work on an electric if you can’t get the temp that high

Great. Now I’m hungry!

As Brian mentions, everybody has their own preferences with smoke. It depends on what I am smoking. I just did venison hotdogs and smoked them for about three hours using chunk pear wood. It was enough to “just” stain the natural casings but not to be overbearing in smoke.

I too use nothing but dry chunk wood. I double wrap it in heavy aluminum foil the poke several small holes in the foil to allow the smoke to vent. These does away with any chance of flare-ups that can come with chunk wood.

On another note with the chunk wood I use, the remainder of what’s left in the foil is pure charcoal. I keep the foil bags in a 5 gallon pail and remove the foil as I need charcoal for the grill. Nothing will grill a steak or chicken breast like pearwood charcoal.

Thanks everyone, sounds like 3 additions of wood chips was too much. The smoker will not take wood chunks that is why I used chips. Will look though and see if it can adapted somehow. I will back off to just one addition and adjust from there.

To answer the question about the skin it was crunchy but very dark.

muskie-tim wrote:

I added a blend of hickory, cherry and apple chips, three times during the process, about 1 hour apart.

I like the phrase if you’re looking your not cooking. Most of the time you’ll find that you don’t and shouldn’t have to open the smoker. Some exceptions for basting, mopping, saucing, foiling, etc apply. The other thing is most of the smoke flavor comes from the early phases of the cook.

As for wood, for every person who doesn’t like hickory the next person does. It’s all about experimentation to find what you like from your cooking methods. Lots of experimentation

patk wrote:

As for wood, for every person who doesn’t like hickory the next person does. It’s all about experimentation to find what you like from your cooking methods. Lots of experimentation

And not every meat will taste good using one wood. As an example here…apple might be better for fish or light meats instead of hickory or mesquite which works well with red meats.

Pat also brings up another very good point in suggesting that the flavor of the smoke comes very early on in the smoking process. There are lots of things that get smoked that get too much smoke just because the smoke doesn’t seem to appear on the surface of the meat. Very often only a small amount of smoke is needed to get the job done.

BigWerm wrote:

I agree with the previous posts, stay away from Hickory and Mesquite as they have a stronger smoke flavor.

This was my first thought when reading the OP. I tend to stay away from those two woods unless I’m smoking large cuts (ribs, shoulder, brisket, etc.) and usually use mesquite with beef only. My guess is she just doesn’t care for the hickory.

The link Trent W is a good one for types of wood. Oak is a great base for blends, I use a fair bit of maple, alder is my favorite. Hope this helps, good luck.

Alder is good too. I picked up some bacon from a butcher last summer that smokes their own in an attached building. I didn’t ask but my guess is that they used alder with a small amount of maple mixed in.

You have a good smoker. I like mine. Fowl readily accepts smoke. I also like a more mild smoke with my chicken. Dont get me wrong, it still has good smoke flavor. I use pecan chips and only fill the chip holder once or twice. Hickory, cherry, and apple produce stronger smoke. Those are work well with pork. Biggest thing to smoking is to keep it simple. Thats my experience anyways. Did you brine the chicken first?

Pm sent muskie-tim

This gave me another thought. Ever wanted to ask a competition cook his secrets? Quetopia bbq in Minnetonka has started doing classes. The owner, Tony, is a great guy and runs a good store. Stop in sometime to check it out.

https://www.quetopiabbq.com/product-category/classes/

Here I thought this thread was gonna be on the upcoming Snoop Dogg concert

For the first time I over smoked my last batch of jerky so I’m going to be more careful next time. I always thought more was better but I think a little goes a long way. No more cheech and Chong billowing smoke for me. At least not with mesquite.

Tim, I think your wood blend was an excellent choice. Having been a smoker for many, many years, I have a different possible answer to your results. Really dark skin can be an indication that combustion occurred. When combustion occurs it changes the quality of the smoke by way of adding creasote to the smoke. This can add an unpleasant smoky taste. I don’t know how your smoker operates but if combustion is occurring, soaking isn’t the answer. Loosely wrapping chips in foil is a common way to reduce oxygen and increase smoke production without fire.

Watching cheech and chong “up in smoke” the other day for the first time in 20 years, I was thinking something else. Very funny movie by the way if thats your style.

Dave good thought but, I don’t think the wood ever actually burned. There was a lot of smoke after each addition and it lasted quite awhile. Each addition was only about 1/2 cup of chips. It appears that it was caused by too many additions of chips. Will continue to experiment using less additions.