Jay, where do you source them?
…
^^^^
Winning
I would recommend you take a look at Humphreys, Stumps, and 270. You can’t go wrong with those three though there are many upright insulateds that are designed and built well. I bought a 270 Large last April and I am happy with it. I took a trip from Ohio to a retailer in the middle of nowhere in central PA who stocked about fifteen different brands of smokers of all types. He hosts a competition in early April each year and his stuff is on sale that day. I arrived thinking I wanted an offset reverse flow stick burner because I had just read Aaron Franklin’s book. He took me around to see what the 50 or so comp teams were cooking on and only a very few were using horizontal offset RF’s. He explained that besides the huge amount of real estate they employ, even comp smokers have a difficult time keeping temps stable with a stick burner. It is indeed an art that very few ever master. If you want to cook whole hog, you need a large offset stick burner but despite what Mr. Fleming says, whole hog is just not practical unless you have a ton of friends who are willing to come over and help you eat the whole thing. But I digress. If funds permit, this beauty is a beast, built like a battle tank THE JUNIOR – Stumps Smokers The 270 Large is half that price and has lots of fans.
I make chili with left over brisket. I may actually like the chili more than the brisket so I usually throw a small flat on the smoker no matter what I make.
I measure by eye, and always mix it up but to the brisket chunks I add: bacon, chopped garlic, a small onion, black pepper, cumin, ground ginger, red pepper flakes, seasoning salt, chili powder, paprika, dry mustard, ground oregano, Rotel, V8 Picante, tomato paste, dark beer and a jar of salsa.
I’ve never had better.
Post Oak (Uvalde, TX D.O.C.G.) smoked chicken. Simple salt, pepper and granulated garlic. 2 hours at 300+/-
I’m getting through the Franklin book and he talks about either building your own or modifying a store bought smoker, but I’m wondering if nobody out there is building high quality smokers, preferably to Aaron’s basic specs?
Hey Bill, when you smoke chicken are you cooking to a certain temperature of doneness or just going on time? When I smoke a chicken it only takes about 45 minutes to an hour to get to 155 in the breast and 165 in the thigh. At that temperature 2 hours seems like overkill but what do I know… 
45 minutes at what temp? 500 deg?
At 300 it takes all of 2 hours to get to 165 in the breast and 180 in the thigh. Indirect, of course.
Bill…do you have a probe in the chicken?
Not during cooking. I only ThermoPen when I think I am getting close.
Keep probing that chicken.
On my 18in WSM it rarely takes more than an hour at 300. I have my probe in at all times with the timer counting up from zero. Are you smoking without a water pan? Im just curious why my cook is half the time of yours. Also I see you cook your bird to a much higher temperature than I do. To me the chicken is already dried out at those temps, but thats just a preference, and the difference in final temp doesn’t suggest a one hour difference between our cook times. Out of curiosity I wonder how long it takes other people in this thread to finish a bird.
No water pan, and not dried out at all.
Spatchcocked like this I’m probably at around 1.25 hours, but I tend to use small birds (fryers) in the sub 3 lb range. I also use the plate setter in my egg running 290 to 310. I don’t usually use oak on chicken preferring cherry, pecan and apple combo.
Doing “hot” ribs today. My wife doesn’t want them smokey today, so I’ll start them at 325 and develop a bit of crust as I bring the temp down to 225. It will take about 2 hours, then a glaze while the temps come back up for a little bit of sticky crust. Starting with a dry rub, which I re apply once during cooking.
I have a Pit Barrel Cooker, basically a consumer version of a UDS, and a 5lb bird cut in half takes almost exactly 2 hours running around 285-300, never dried out…
A small place in Orange, CA called The Pepper Project
cooked 5 hours at 225 degrees- light coating of deli mustard and a dry rub using smoked paprika, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, light brown sugar. about 1TBL of each.
using hardwood charcoal and three large chunks of cherry wood.
used diffuser plates and a drip pan.
no mop- and didn’t move them or even open grill during the cook.
Fall off the bone tender
Nice.