I tried to get the Weber Smokey Mountain smoker to hit 300 degrees... but couldn't. No matter what I did, it never broke 275 degrees.
I put in a full chimney of Kingsford Original charcoal to the minion style of lighting coals in the WSM. I even had more charcoal in the 22.5" smoker. I waited until the coals were fully ready to go before putting the chicken on the grate. All vents were open too (bottoms and top). It didn't matter. The temperature hovered at 262 degrees. I decided to open the access door slightly by unlatching the Cajun Bandit latch on the Cajun Bandit stainless steel door. I even tried to skew the top portion of the smoker to let more air to escape out from the top, but that made the temperature drop! I decided to put the top back on correctly and that made the temperature rise again.
Stirring up the coals with my fireplace poker didn't help either.
Perhaps these changes could have worked if I used the 18.5 inch smoker instead, but with the 22.5 inch, I had a hard time making the temperature rise past 275 degrees. I did not use the water pan nor did I leave the water pan in the smoker either. Instead, I put in the second "internal" grill grate and foiled it for easy cleanup from the chicken leg drippings.
I guess if I want to get a higher temperature, I will need to use my Weber Spirit E-310 propane gas grill instead. Too bad I can't do it on the smoker!
The rub I used this time was the Weber "Kick'n Chicken" rub. To me, it had a little too much of a kick to it. You can see the red pepper flakes in the rub. It was ok, but I'm not sure I liked it enough to use it again. I also put too much rub on the chicken as you can see. Perhaps it would have been better if I hadn't put on as much.
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