British BBQ Society Forums

Newby to forum.
Cooked a whole chicken tonight on a bullet smoker.
Put it in at 3 pm served it up at 8 pm but struggled with temp.
Don't think it got over 100 oC
Looked quite pale on outside but once indoors took a temp and it was easy over 175 right down in the leg area juices running clear etc.
But the redish coloured meat seemed ok but did not fall apart but my worry was the bone looked bloody to me, so my question really is can you rely on the temp gauge, when is it blood or just smoke?

Hi Odchamp,

I guess with this cook being a couple of days ago you've had time to come out the back of this unscathed or out the back came..... anyway.

Your temperatures, assuming we're in C not F sound more than enough. Google will back this up . I agree that sometimes, particularly when smoking, chicken can appear under done but in fact you have a nice penetration of smoke hence the colour. If the juices ran clear then you don't really need to worry.

An idea, put your probe into some boiling water and check you read 100C. If not, throw it or make adjustments.

Is it blood or smoke? That's something you need to gauge by sight I would say. However, good temperatures and clear juices are a pretty good indicator. I'm not a fan of low and slow chicken myself, I think it has it's downsides. Not least the skin doesn't go crispy.

Dan