Beer Can Chicken - Cook Time Question

Smokus Maximus

Thought I'd throw this out there in case anyone has experienced this.

I'm smoking beer can chicken for the first time, I have two chickens about 4.5 lbs each.

I've got the bge set up with the plate setter upside down, grill on top of that, the chickens sitting in a drip pan on top of the grill.

I've been able to maintain a very steady temperature in the egg right around 210 to 220 for just about 4 hours now. That was my estimated time these birds would be done, based on the way the temp was rising in them for the first few hours. I have a probe in the thigh of one bird, and it rose steadily until about 145 and then really slowed down.

Just curious - is that fairly normal? Does the rate of cooking change even if the temperature in the cooker is consistent?

I'm not ready to panic (yet) but I always appreciate the experience you folks have.

Fire Walker

I have had better luck with a temp of around 400 it crisps the skin without drying the bird out, a mod of this is to smoke the bird for abou 3o minutes then crank the egg up to 400 degrees you get the best of both worlds takes about 1hr for the strait 400 and about 90 minutes for the slow and go.

FireWalker

Grandpas Grub

I haven't paid attention to bird cooking temperatuture increase being steady or not.

If you dome is holding steady, don't worry, watch the meat temp.

GG

Smokus Maximus

Ok, might try that next time - I'm still surprised that the rate the temperature was increasing slowed down so much at 150 degrees.

They went from 42 degrees to about 145 degrees in about 3 hours. Now they've reached just about 170 degrees and that took another 2 hours - just doesn't seem right.

I've bumped the egg up to 300 degrees and rising now just to get them done.