Little Chief Smokers

[salish]

I found an older Little Chief smoker at garage sale this summer, complete with an old bag of wood chips. I'm not familiar with these things. Do you just fill the pan with wood chips and smoke whatever you want to use? Does the act of smoking for several hours actually cook for the food, or do you still have to grill your meat afterwards? Sorry if it's a stupid question. The only things I kill are game birds and turkeys. Well, occasionally fish, also.

Thanks,
Cliff

[Woodchuck]

They will cook birds and fish ok but a turkey in a little chief will take a looooooooooong time. 

[luvmystang67]

They work pretty well, but you can't do much to control temperature.

Great for smoking fish.

Good starting smoker.

If temperature is a concern, then the smoker is a challenge.  You can't really cold smoke things, everything is hot smoked at one temperature.  Time and elevation in the unit are your only controls.

[trophyhunt]

Yup, great for fish, and after you use it a few times, just open the lid and smell the goodness!!  That sweet smoke smell just sticks around in those!

[pianoman9701]

Soak the chips a little while in water. They'll produce smoke longer. I have two that I used for smoking salt and paprika that I sold to my top restaurants. They've been sitting in the shed for a few years not doing anything.

[salish]

Guys, thanks very much for your suggestions. So, these Lil Smokers don't actually cook the food, unless it's a salmon steak or a trout, correct? You could smoke them and eat them? Or would you have to smoke them and then cook them on a stove or in an oven? For instance, I have a large turkey breast in the freezer from a tom I shot this past spring. If I smoked it for a couple of hours would I them have to cook it in an oven? If this is the case then the smoker is used mainly for imparting smoky flavor to a cut of meat that's then cooked conventionally?

[Farmer72]

It does heat up and can cook the breast but may take a long time to cook it fully. We used to use it mainly for salmon and it worked awesome (I like a hard smoked fish) but we used to do chunks of deer also.

[birddogdad]

have used these to infuse the flavor for a few hours then pop into oven to actually cook ... works great for thanksgiving turkey breast to do this..

[Evil_EdwardO]

Maybe throwing a fire blanket on it may help retain the heat.

They do make insulation covers for them.

[WSU]

Temp isn't high enough to smoke/cook most things.  I have one and us it only for fish.  I'm sure other things would work to infuse flavor but not cook (salt like Pmas said, or cheese, etc.).  I smoke everything else on a different smoker with higher temp and more temp control.

I like it more than other smokers for fish though!

[Angry Perch]

Very dependent on outside temp. You could probably cook a chicken in August, but it'd be Salmonella Sashimi in January.

[luvmystang67]

All this said you COULD cook on it, you'd just have to watch temps.

I tried to smoke cheese in my Big Chief, but it was too hot.  I'm sure the temp inside the box is around 200 degrees (never measured it).  As others have mentioned, insulation blankets, or even the box it came in, were used to increase temperature on these.

The nice thing about more modern ones with temp control is you can crank them up to maybe 300 if you want to really cook something while it smokes.

I think the little chief would work for things like pepperoni or other smoked meats, just might be tough to do something like a turkey at 200 degrees... it'd take a day.

[Sandberm]

My old, little tin can Chief smoker is good for smoking fish and making jerky. No way Id do a big bird in it.

NOTHING IS EXACT.

Ive learned to adjust my smoking time based off what the temp is and if the wind is blowing. If its warm, put it in in the morning, pull it out before you go to bed. If its 40 degrees, put it in in the morning, take it out the next morning. If the wind is blowing, smoke in the garage.

[pianoman9701]

Maybe throwing a fire blanket on it may help retain the heat.

They do make insulation covers for them.

I have those.

[Alchase]

Maybe throwing a fire blanket on it may help retain the heat.

They do make insulation covers for them.

I have those.

I use to use a cardboard box over my Little Chief, helped alot on windy days. You can also replace the element with a single burner stove element to get your temps up between 150-200 degrees.