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Chicken thighs (and bacon…)
Ribs were pretty good and left me with a solid game plan. Time to tackle chicken thighs. Trying 4 varieties; Italian marinade with butt rub, Italian marinade with custom chicken rub, mojo marinade with butt rub and mojo marinade with custom chicken rub. Cooking technique is a blend across a few sources. Got lazy and didn’t pull skin off to trim fat under skin, but cleaned up bottom and trimmed skin to fit size of thigh. Don’t think it will matter for this cook because goal is to nail flavor profile. Not a bad way to spend a rainy afternoon.
Ribs (and bacon)
Firebox test went well, time to put some meat on the smoker. Did two varieties of rib rubs, good test run, ribs turned out yummy!
Firebox built and testing
Came up with a snake design with hopes to prolong burn times. Firebox was a bit heavier than expected, go figure…
Seasoned and first test drive
After a total of about 7 hours of seasoning, decided it was time to put some food on it. Made up some bacon burgers and a few extra strips of bacon on a bit of mesquite and apple wood.
Wow- it’s nearly done!
Got up and started around 7:30am. Sean came over and helped until the afternoon, but 2 doors took forever! Wrapped up around 9pm, but it is finally ready to operate. Threw some charcoal in and gave it a quick 3 hour run, it did great! Temps are within 5 degrees in meat locker with the exception of the water bowl area, which averaged about 8-10 degrees below other areas. The fire was undersized for the smoker but we held 275 for about 90 minutes with no issues before the fire ran out. Will plan to season it again tomorrow for another 3 hours or so, hopefully cooking something tomorrow evening!
Outer sides and bottom seems welded and grinded, probe hole poked.
Just need a top and some doors!!!
