I have BBQed using propane and natural gas most of my life, but charcoal is something new to me and so is smoking my food. Cooking meat low and slow seems to be the way to go, using a crock pot helps me better understand that but everything that comes from a crockpot is wet. So I wanted a system to slowly cook meat, and being able to do it outside was a pro. So I got myself a Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM) smoker.
The 18" version is the one I got myself, it comes with a cover and besides that not much else. So I bought myself a charcoal chimney, a floor cover, charcoal and some wood chips for the smoker (Cherry).
After all set up, it was time to light the coals. I have never done this before so I watched a video online on how to do this. Used some paper to ignite the coals and about 10 minutes later they were ashing over. The beginning of this process made alot of smoke but as the chimney got hotter the smoke burned off.
I may have put too many coals, almost filling it to the top. Next time I will try with it only half full and see how that works out for me.
Once the chimney was ready I used both hands and poured them into the smokers bottom. There was already a small bed of coals in the smoker so I placed the hot ones on top. And then added the cherry wood to the sides and the middle.
First up on the smoker were some chicken thighs, I rubbed some olive oil on them and then seasoned them. Once ready I put them on the top rack of the smoker.
A close up of the raw chicken thighs, the color yellow can be seen from all the turmeric I use.
The chicken thighs all cooked and ready to eat.
About an hour and a half later they were cooked, I tested their temp with a probe and they were over 165F.
Love how the color went from a bright yellow to a strong orange. I wonder if the smoke has something to do with the coloring of the meat.
I placed them cooked chicken in glass containers for storage, should last me half a way or so.
Next up was some pork sausage, I eat these in the morning with some macaroni and cheese. Normally I BBQ them on the top shelf, but figured smoking them is worth a try.
When I flipped them over about 20 minutes later they had nice grill lines on them, didnt know the smoker got hot enough to make those.. a nice tough.
Using the top rack of smoker I had them in there for a little over 30 minutes. I kept the temperature around 225F.
When the sausages started to split I took them off, did not want to lose all the pork juices inside.
Sometimes the smoker would start to get too hot or too cold. So I adjusted the vents up top to make it cool down or heat up.
Smoked some beef sausage next, did not have room for both and just wanted to work with one try first and move onto using both trays eventually. This smoker has two levels to it so I can smoke more than just what I can fit on one tray. But for this day all I did was top tray cooking. The beef sausage took about the same amount of time as the pork sausage, 30ish minutes.
The chicken was real tasty, it retained all of its moisture and had a nice smoky flavor. Reminds me of eating chicken at a BBQ restaurant. The pork sausage came out great too, and so did the beef sausage. It darkened both of them as well including the chicken and gave the outside a meat a nice texture.
Next up is to smoke some of my macaroni and cheese. Ive always wanted to try some smoked cheese, only eating what I can get from grocery stores. So making my own smoked goat cheese with noodles should be something fun to try next in the smoker.
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Wow! Looks yummy! We absolutely love smoking, hopefully you'll share more recipes!!
Thanks alot, ah nice.. I am getting into it more and more as I try different meats.
Yeah will do, thanks for the comment.
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