Hello so I am totally new to pellet smoking and need some help/ advise on a cook I plan on doing on Saturday. Were having some guests over and I would hate to experiment and mess up the food.. (I'll do that when its just the fam around) My question is I wanna smoke/roast a whole chicken and a tri tip at the same time. Anyone have some recipe suggestions of how I can smoke both at same time and keep chicken skin crispy? I can beer can it or brine it to keep meat moist let me know. I did two whole chickens last week at 375 not much smoke but can out good I did them a bit to long though.. I will fix that cause I just picked up a maverick today.. Also FYI I have a Blazin Grill grand slam pellet grill.
Need some help here
- Thread starter A56cali
- Start date
I find that on my pellet grill, the beer can is not necessary for keeping the chicken moist. To get more smoke I like to cook my food at a low temperature for a few hours, generally around 180 since that is my lowest setting. The pellets smoke more at lower temperatures. After a couple of hours of smoking, I turn the temperature up and finish cooking my food. It is a little too late but I recommend getting the new Amazing Tube Smoker to help add smoke. I just got one and it works wonders. You can probably just use a makeshift one for now if you get creative. Check out their website.
TentHunter
Moderator
This isn't the only way, but here's how I'd do it:
First, I'd spatchcock the chicken (cut out the backbone and splay it open). Spatchcocking will let the chicken & trip-tip cook pretty evenly.
Season the chicken & Tri-tip as desired.
Put both, the chicken (skin side up) & Tri-tip on the grill running at 275°. Use two temp probes. Stick one probe in the Tri-tip and one in the thickest part of your chicken breast.
When the Tri-tip reaches about 110°, flip it. When it reaches about 5° below your desired temp (we pull ours around 135°) pull it off and immediately crank the grill up to about 375° and flip the chicken skin side down. This should crisp the skin up. The chicken will most likely take an additional 10 - 15 minutes to finish cooking.
While that happens, rest the tri-tip tented under foil (do NOT wrap it) so it stays warm, but rests.
Because of the higher heat, the chicken's temp will be cruising upward, so as soon as the chicken temp reaches 164-165° pull it off and let it rest a few minutes while bringing it and the Tri-tip to the serving table.
Both the Tri-tip and chicken should be moist, tender, and yummy coming off your pellet grill.
First, I'd spatchcock the chicken (cut out the backbone and splay it open). Spatchcocking will let the chicken & trip-tip cook pretty evenly.
Season the chicken & Tri-tip as desired.
Put both, the chicken (skin side up) & Tri-tip on the grill running at 275°. Use two temp probes. Stick one probe in the Tri-tip and one in the thickest part of your chicken breast.
When the Tri-tip reaches about 110°, flip it. When it reaches about 5° below your desired temp (we pull ours around 135°) pull it off and immediately crank the grill up to about 375° and flip the chicken skin side down. This should crisp the skin up. The chicken will most likely take an additional 10 - 15 minutes to finish cooking.
While that happens, rest the tri-tip tented under foil (do NOT wrap it) so it stays warm, but rests.
Because of the higher heat, the chicken's temp will be cruising upward, so as soon as the chicken temp reaches 164-165° pull it off and let it rest a few minutes while bringing it and the Tri-tip to the serving table.
Both the Tri-tip and chicken should be moist, tender, and yummy coming off your pellet grill.
Last edited:
So Cal Smoker
New member
Be very careful of Cross contamination.
Tent how long do you think it would take chicken is around 5 lbs and tri tip around 2- 2.5..
TentHunter
Moderator
Yes, a 5 lb chicken is a big one. Done the way I described above, you can count on about 13 - 15 minutes per pound. So, I would guess about an hour and 5 - 15 minutes of actual cooking time for a 5 lb bird. Like BP said, pull it at 160° minimum and 165° at the latest.
I would guess the Tri-tip to be about 50 minutes or so depending on what you want your final temp to be.
Just be sure to keep the Tri-tip tented with foil while the chicken finishes and you should be fine.
One thing is for sure; after eating steak off your pellet grill, you will never want to go out to a restaurant for steak again!
I would guess the Tri-tip to be about 50 minutes or so depending on what you want your final temp to be.
Just be sure to keep the Tri-tip tented with foil while the chicken finishes and you should be fine.
One thing is for sure; after eating steak off your pellet grill, you will never want to go out to a restaurant for steak again!
Thanks for all the advise guys! I injected the chicken with melted butter, garlic and brown sugar, then rubbed the outside with some Emirls chicken rub. I cooked the chicken whole @ smoke P5 for a half hour then turned it up to 250 P2 for about 3 hours once meat was about 165 I sprayed skin with melted butter and cranked the grill to 450 for about 20-25 min. I cooked the chicken raised from the grill surface on a cookie rack to make it crispy all the way around. Turned out tender and skin was crispy and edible. The Tri Tip I rubbed it with my favorite rub (spicy Jezebel) and some jack daniels bbq sauce in a bag over night. Pulled it out of bag wiped it clean and added some apple juice to sauce left in bag. I used that to inject into tri tip and threw it on grill @ 250 P2 for about 1.5 hours once meat was at 130 I pulled it. Once chicken was getting the 450 I threw it back on 5 min each side for a sear.. It came out so tender and juicy it was awesome I love my new Pellet grill.. Thanks for all the advise guy will post more as I cook more!!