Big Bob Gibson Hickory Chicken Question

Hi There

New to the forums and smoking

I have just tried Big Bob Gibson Hickroy Chicken in my frontier.

Following the direction it suggests indirect cooking at 325F. I set up the frontier without water in order to get the temperature to 325F.

I coated the chicken in salt and placed it in the frontier with Hickory Chips. After 1 and a half hours you are told to take the chicken out and coat with some oil or lard and then place back in the bbq for another 1 and a half or until the internal temp reachs 180 in the thigh. At this point the skin looks beautiful before putting it back in.

I was a bit concerned because lower temps of around 220 to 250 take 3 and half hours to cook a chicken so i checked the chicken with a probe after about 40 mins of the second stage so 2 hours 10 total cooking time, and the internal temp of the thigh was 200F!

The Chicken still tasted good but I am confused about the suggested cooking time. I know it says "Or until the temp reaches 180" but the temp probe of the chicken suggests the chicken probably got to 180 at the 1 hour 50 mark.

To me it seems such a drastic difference between the suggested cooking time and my result. Oh the recipe calls for two chickens i just cooked one but I can't see that making a difference

Can anybody shed some light on this for me? Should I adjust the cooking time so that I put the oil/lard on earlier if my total cooking time is less?

Got the book, but haven't had time to try any of the great recipes out yet.
Cooking at 220-250 will take around 3.5 hours. At the temp he suggests, I would imagine 1.5 hours -2 hours and the bird should be done.
Safest way to check is measuring the internal temp... 165- 170 is where I take mine off.

Cool thanks for the resassurance. I'll probably do the second stage at about 45 mins - 1 hour into the cook, maybe the book is allowing for large chickens.

I know there are few ways to inderect cook, the book says you have to flip the bird half way though, I would think you wouldn't have to do this in a vertical smoker with the pan in the way. maybe the inderect method he ios using is causing longer cook times. maybe

Cheers for you help