Did you have to make any modifications to it or are you using it as is? The description of it on their site is lacking so if you could provide me with any more details, that would be great.

Looked up the shipping to Phoenix and it would only be $15 extra to ship! This could be the winner then.

I was reading today that the offset smokers are not the best to use because the smoke tends to rise, no transfer horizontally. The reason expensive horizontal smokers work better is because of reverse flow. And others say the temp difference between the different sides of the box are much too great for even cooking.

Don't know how much any of that makes sense but a few articles I have read have made those comments.

I'm thinking about smoking a chicken next weekend. Does anyone have any tips or experience to offer?

Get some really big rolling papers....

I drilled about 10 holes in the charcoal pan to let air pass better to the coals. Also put some fire felt around the door seal. Look, it's a $70 smoker, so it's not going to be as nice as a WSM, but it does a fine job. Make sure to use plenty of liquid in the water pan. What I do is fill it with water then chuck in a can of frozen apple juice. You can use frozen cherry juice too if you like. Works great.

I've used mine about three or four times in the last month. Did ribs twice, and chicken. All came out great. You can also get one of those small steel pots, and put a pot of BBQ beans in there and smoke the beans. Really makes the beans great. Don't forget to get some hickory, pecan or apple wood chips for the fire.

Check out this thread:
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/sh...d.php?t=130883

Thanks Gblowfish, much appreciated. I will probably go with this Red Stone one as the Brinkmann doesn't have any vents for some odd reason.

Chief fans are professional meat smokers

I can put some air holes in it for you

My cheap ass brinkman actually holds a nice low temp pretty well. I mess with it about every 45 minutes I guess, but that doesn't seem too bad to me.

Mix 1c apple juice, 1/4c apple cider vinegar, 1tbs honey and some dry rub. Inject the bird, coat in dry rub then let it rest for 2-4 hours in the fridge. I cook mine upright on one of those wire stands.

What the guy was saying about a marinade is good, you don't necessarily have to inject the chicken, but letting it marinade for about 4 hours in the fridge will help the tenderness.

I like a dry rub from these guys. I use it on ribs, but it's also fine on chicken:
http://blueshog.com/website/about.html

Hmm, that is interesting. The reason the smoke stack is at the opposite end, is to bring it across the meat from the source.

I do know that right next to the heat entrance, it is going to be hot as hell, so I don't use that part of the grill.

I bought a couple pretty good thermometers on Ebay, drilled holes in the cabinet and mounted them above the areas that I use. The far end and middle.

I don't pay any attention to that generic one that came with it, that says cool, ideal and hot.

Also, at the recommendation of this board on another one of these threads, my daughters bought me a remote thermometer that is the shiznit. You don't have to open the hood, and can watch the temp progress of the meat from the comfort of the indoors.

those are pretty easy to modify where you wont have to do that so much. Just make little grill vents on the bottom and one on the top and you can shut the heat down and let out some of the ash for a longer burn. a couple of holes at each location, and a semicircle of metal with a bolt through the middle by the flat side of the semicircle, and you can open and close airflow. Just put one on each side of the grill and one on top

My Brinkmann Gourmet smoker came in today! I used my credit card reward points to get this so I didn't have to pay anything out of pocket.

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/g...5/DSCN0374.jpg

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/g...5/DSCN0373.jpg

I wanna use my smoker for the first time. What cut of meat is the most forgiving for a first timer to try?