Workhorse 1957 Fire Management Series #1: Smoked Chicken Halves
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- What you cook determines the type of fire that you need in a backyard offset smoker. In our Workhorse 1957 Fire Management Series, MaxQ Barbecue will share videos dedicated to the steps to manage a fire on a smaller backyard offset smoker. This video shares the steps and actions taken to cook Eight Chicken halves.
Love this smoker. I will be able to purchase one next spring. Such a great deal
Hope you enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed mine. The best part is serving up great barbecue products to friends and family. The compliments make the extra work worthwhile.
I was shocked at only 63 likes. Best fire box video I’ve seen keep it coming
Appreciate that. When I was switching to the Workhorse offset, I looked for videos that would give me the real feel of running the pit. I hope that the fire management series will fill that gap. Thanks
Very great information your giving us !
Glad it was helpful!
I just finished my first cook with my 1975 t workhorse..... I enjoy watching your content is very helpful.... Thank you
Rock on! Thanks for watching. Please share your experiences on the channel.
Thank you for taking the time to explain the firebox method. There are not that many videos out there patiently explaining this method. Also, I just learned a better technique watching this. 👌
Glad it was helpful! There are more experiments coming this season.
Thank you for taking the time to make your videos. I am enjoying your content.
Glad you like them!
Enjoy the videos sir. I just ordered the 1975-t. I have a timberline 1300, BGE and a old country brazos right now. Looking forward to getting this pitt other than the 10 month wait time. Happy thanksgiving to you all
Enjoy your new pit. I've cooked on an Old Country Brazos. I wish I had done a fire management video on it to showcase the different strategies. The OCB had a charcoal tray that drastically altered fire management. It actually made it easier to use the dampers to control the temperature. Without a fire basket, I think you will find that you will want use fire geometry to control burn as you don't have a bottom up air flow when burning at the bottom of the pit.
Great job. I really enjoyed this. Thanks for the upload.
Glad you enjoyed it
I like your method no throwing wood out I like how you keep that fire under control,very nice
I would build a nice big fire damper it down and let it go for 2 hours awesome
Every cook is different and each needs a different fire. Some require more smoke, some less. Some require higher temps other times less temp. Some need more convection, others less. Since you can't turn a dial with a wood fire, you have to use different techniques to achieve your desired result. Then the pit design comes into play. Different designs will run differently which is why you see so many people making modifications to their pit. Tuning plates, baffles, stack extensions, smoke collectors, reverse flow, fire baskets, etc. the list go on. I like the challenge and opportunities to do things differently. That's' what keeps this fun and interesting. Plus getting flavors from real wood is special.
Have you needed to use a baffle on the 1957 or done a biscuit test on it?
Keep up the great content. Can't wait to see how your cooks turn out and what more tips you have to share
Thanks! Will do!
Great video…..keep putting videos out!!!! My next pit will be the workhorse!!!!
If you love live fire, you will love the Workhorse. It is a solid piece of workmanship.
Great video! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for watching! I need to send you a shout out in a future episode.
@@maxqbbq Awesome, thanks! I'll do the same in my next video. I've got a good one planned and I'm starting to take some footage!
Boom liked and subscribed
Thanks!!
Thank you great vid 😊 Im going to purchase the kindling splitter 👍
Good choice! Typical firewood splits are just too large for a smaller pits like the 1957 and most commercial backyard offset smokers.
👍 job! Something I notice when building a fire is getting a fire bed is the main source of temperature so when you start out be generous with fuel use the lump and big wood and build a nice hot bed to bring your cooker to desired temp then use the smaller splits to maintain smoke and as the temp or fire bed wanes replenish the bed bc that is the source of your heat.
Good tips and nice looking yardbird. It’s obvious you’re having a great time. Could you throw in a “Bye Felicia” at the end
Great suggestion! :-)
I just built a 180 gallon, twin Stack, reverse flow, cabinet smoker with a smoke collector, burn box cooking grate, removable tuning plates and a meat hanging rod with meat hooks. This looks like a child's toy to me now. I came from having an Oklahoma Job smoker blow up in my face because of bad propane components on the BBQ side. You would not believe the difference a real smoker makes in meat quality. It's amazing.
There is nothing like live wood fire. Your smoke sounds pretty amazing. Post pictures and let us knw what is your next cooking adventure
Great video and very informative about the fire management needs for the pit. Curious if the pit side of the door leaks smoke like that all the time?
Yes it leaks like that all the time. The hinge angle causes the top of the lid to touch first leaving the bottom up. I can press it down but it springs back up. I thought the repeated heating cycles would allow it to settle. However, I may need to heat the hinge bars and bend them for a better fit.
I use door gasket material on my other pits and have a new roll in the kitchen. At some point, I need to decide if I want to add a gasket to the lid. I'll probably try heating the hinge bar first to close the gap. All in all, it drafts so well that a little leaking smoke has not bothered me.
@@maxqbbq interesting and thank you for the honesty. Did workhorse offer to fix it or did u not say anything to them about it. And good to know it’s a good enough pit that it overcomes a small leak.
Thank you, Craig, for starting the Workhorse 1957 Series, I'm considering purchasing 1957 Pit. How do you feel about the wheels on your pit? I notice they were deflated, time line 1:49 of the video.
The Workhorse 1975 is a heavy pit. The pneumatic tires definitely show the compression due to that weight. The cast steel wheels would be sturdier. Solid rubber would not compress so bad. For the time being, the standard tires are fine and they do resist rolling down the slight grade of the patio. The conform to the mortar joint and hold the pit in place. The casters have standard mounting bolts so I figure that I could change the wheels out at some future point if I find some that I like better.
Workhorse recently started having their own wheels produced, and customers receiving their pits now have them. They look better, but maybe call Workhorse to see if the new wheels prevent that issue.
When cutting splits with your miter saw, have you found that the blade holds up well?
I have an old carbide tipped blade on the miter saw that I use to trim my splits. It's not as sharp as a new blade but the carbide is so much harder than the wood splits that it saws right though the wood especially softer woods like Cherry. Hickory can make it crawl. I definitely would not use my new finishing blade on the saw to cut splits. Fortunately, I bought a new miter saw for my wood working and it has a fresh new blade for making my fine cuts. My firewood gives me a reason to keep my old faithful around with new purpose.
I notice you have a little bit of a smoke leak on the left side of the door. Did it fix on its own or did you ever try to fix it with gaskets?
I sealed every gap on my Pit Boss and have gasket material to seal the Workhorse. However, I haven't worried too much about the leaks as the Workhorse is designed to be high air flow style pit. With a small pit, your fire is more efficient and faster responding. Most people find hot spots and have more trouble managing temperature as small fire has a big impact. In a larger pit, the heat is spread over a larger chamber and you have greater separation from the direct radiant heat.
So at what time or temperature did you put the chicken in. Watched 2X never saw the chicken added
Please check out the companion video Grandpa JK's BBQ Chicken at th-cam.com/video/aoGlCg8d9eQ/w-d-xo.html. The temperatures and times are contained within that video. For these chicken halves, I started off with relatively low pit temperatures around 225 degrees F. Later in the cook after the chicken took on a layer of smoke and was close to done, I increased the pit to around 300 degrees F. Higher temperatures are needed to crisp up the skin. If you just smoke the chicken the skin will be soggy and not inviting. Crank up the temperature towards the end of the cook to get that nice and crispy finish.
Sorry for asking this question. But if you don't mind, could you please tell me how much you paid for this with shipping.
I have had the Workhorse 1957 for over three years now. Prices have gone up since I bought mine and I waited over nine months to get it during the pandemic. It was around $2K with all the additions. Delivery was a few hundred using the Workhorse regional shipping.
Hey guys I'm in Washington State looking for used pit if any of you guys are upgrading
From.. Ray
Have found anything yet? Let us know when you get cooking.
@@maxqbbq not yet are you ready for 1975😉
How many briskets can it cook at once?
You can get two briskets on it. Any more than that the briskets are too close to the firebox end and are subject to higher radiant heating. The goal is to cook the brisket with smoke flavored convection.
i found if you close the firebox it will pre heat your smoker and greatly cut dow n the time to get cooking.
I am always trying new things. Thanks for the suggestion.
If you just cut your delivered wood in half lengthwise and then split to your desired length, you would maximize your fuel usage
I tried cutting the delivered wood in half. Unfortunately, I ended up feeding the fire more often. I could try cutting the wood splits in half and use it like chunks. However, the Workhorse 1957 bottom fed fire seems to like more airflow. I suspect that an elevated fire grate would provide enough vertical air movement through the coal bed to allow bigger diameter chunks. I may have to invest in a fire grate to test out that theory.
270? gonna say that chicken is overdone. 😂
beautiful pit. thx for the vid
270 is the Interstate you hear in the background and the smoker temperature during part of the cook. ;-) The internal temperature of the chicken is about 160 degrees F when done. The challenge with chicken on the smoker is you need to crisp up the skin for a crispy delicious bite. Crisping the skin takes higher temperatures around 350 to 375 degrees F. In this cook, I glazed the chicken with BBQ sauce and browned it at the higher temp in the smoker.
My dad's chicken was always cooked directly over charcoal with amazing results.