Getting tired of the whole chicken in a crock pot.
We’re busy folks that generally eat pretty boring. One of the weekly meals is a whole chicken plopped in the crock pot for about 5 hours.
Tastes good and is super moist. But sometimes I just don’t want it falling off the bone.
Is there a smoker I can pop a whole chicken or turkey in and leave the house for a few hours?
Or a pan of ribs or chicken wings?

I personally would trust any combustible material to an older while I'm not home.

There are plenty of pellet smokers that are automated but I still wouldn't leave them unattended.

Yeah, I don't leave my pellet smoker unattended.

I wouldn’t hesitate to leave my electric smoker for a couple hours. I run errands quite often. It is basically an oven that burns wood chips. Food tastes great.

https://www.smokin-it.com/

I often leave my Big Green Egg-worst thing that can happen is that the fire goes out. But it won't.

Lot's of them have wifi connections so they can be monitored and adjusted remotely by and app on your smartphone.

I would have no problem leaving my pellet smoker going if it was away from anything that could catch on fire if something went wrong. On my hard pool deck, in my green lawn, etc. I would not be concerned and mine doesn't have wifi.

Green Mountain Grills, Rec Tec, Yoder, and others all have wifi controllers so you would be able to monitor the cook the whole time.

That said, a roasted chicken in my pellet grill can be cooked in about an hour and it is delicious.

I put a brisket on my egg at night and sleep straight through till morning. Keeps temp all night on the number with the BBQ Guru gizmo. Never gave it a thought, not much there that can go wrong.

The various smoking forums are full of fail stories of trying to leave automated smokers unattended. Fans fail, temp probes go whacky, computer boards fail etc. And of course these things happen at the worst of times. When you have a prime or wagyu brisket on. Never when you have that piece of choice grade brisket on. Chicken don't take that long to cook anyhow. Pre plan your time and enjoy the process.

Another Egg user here too.
I leave all kinds of things for hours and not have to do anything especially brisket or ribs to a lesser degree (time).
Sometimes the temp will creep up on you but generally very stable.
After all if you lookin' your not cookin'.

This is pretty much the only way I cook whole chickens nowadays. So much faster, easier to get the breasts and dark meat done at same time. Best for grilling, but you can use your preferred method of cooking. This is a major time saver, game changing. I have changed from a couple of times a year doing whole chickens to every month. Best part is I turn it into two meals+. I save the gibblets and back plus carcass and make stock. Then I take chicken leftovers and stock plus veggies and make chicken noodle soup.

Can't recommend it enough, I think tatortodd turned me on to it.




Link to original video: https://youtu.be/Ppa1bxB89vg

I have a BGE with a CyberQ temp controller. I smoked year around in Anchorage, Calgary, and N Houston. Most of those 3 places are downright miserable outdoors 5 to 10 months a year so I’m certainly not outdoors attending to it. Briskets and pork butts I sleep through most of the cook. My pit temp alarm would wake me up if it got too hot or cold.

Like Skins, I’m a big fan of spatchcock chicken and turkey. Faster and juicier than beer can chicken or smoking the intact whole chicken. I’ve posted about it several times over the years.

I grilled a 16 pound spatchcock Turkey a couple weeks ago on my Weber. It was done in 3 hours and was delicious but I didn’t leave it for long during the cook.

I've got an Egg, an electric, and a pellet, I've run all of them overnight and while at work with no concerns.

A mixed bag of responses, from a safety standpoint it's a good idea to keep an eye on any source of ignition. That said I have no problem leaving my pellet smoker, I have an app that I can check anytime plus alarms at preset temps. I can also start it remotely ( I don't do that ! ) as well as turning it off, that I do.

Big Green Egg.

I have a BGE and although I could leave it for a few hours as they hold their temperature very well, I am too anal to do it. Now if I had a temperature controller you can attach to it to ensure it stays at a certain temp, then yes I would absolutely leave it for whatever amount of time.

I can’t afford those controllers right now, but I know people who have one and they are amazing from what they say.

quote:

Originally posted by heavyd:
Big Green Egg.

This.
Fill a BGE w/ lump charcoal and open the vents all the way, nothing happens except it gets really hot inside. In fact, some people might actually do this to clean it. I did it to restore a rusted cast iron pan. Temps started coming down after an hour to hour and a half after being 750*+ for the duration.

I spatchcock cooked a chicken just tonight. I agree, that's its easy and I do is every couple of weeks. I mix butter and seasoning powder and then get it under the skin. It's awesome! I learned from a video by Binging with Babish.

As to your original questions, I don't see why you couldn't get one of those IP cameras and point it at the smoker to check periodically. Give you a little piece of mind that you aren't burning your neighborhood down.

Rec Tec grill here. Wouldn’t hesitate to leave it unattended. I used to plop a pork shoulder in the Traeger at 11PM and fill the hopper and go to sleep. Wake up the next morning and top off the hopper until noon.

I got rid of the traeger last year and upgraded to the Rec Tec.

I use the WiFi all the time to turn it on remotely and monitor temperature. It works great.

Tony.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: benny6,

I might start my Traeger at 1800 for a 14 hour smoke on some pork belly but I am subconsciously aware of it throughout the night.