Smoked Honey Garlic Chicken

Smoked Honey Garlic Chicken and Thermoworks Smoke Review


Our good friends over at Thermoworks have released a new wireless thermometer called “Smoke“.  The Smoke is a wireless thermometer that includes two probes.  That way, you can wirelessly monitor both the pit and the food.  As a barbecuer, this is important.  The proper temperature is the difference between delicious bbq and charcoal.  Plus, since this is all done wirelessly, you can do it while watching your favorite game or snoozing on the couch. We tested this thermometer while making a nice Honey Garlic Smoked Chicken.  The chicken provided approximately 2 hours for us to test the thermometer and check its limits.  The thermometer performed flawlessly and actually exceeded expectations.  Check out our review below.

Smoke Receiver

Smoked Honey Garlic Chicken

In order to smoke the chicken, you will have to set up your grill or smoker for offset cooking.   We heated up 15 coals and placed them on top of a bed of unlit coals and apple wood chips.

Set up the grill for smoking

Then we closed the lid and let the temperature come up. To adjust the kettle temperature, we placed the Smoke pit probe on the grate and adjusted our vents to get to a nice 275-285 degrees.  If you would like to see our set up, check out our post on how to turn your Weber charcoal grill into a smoker.

Honey Garlic Chicken

This recipe is quite simple.  We used a 5lb chicken and coated it with Weber’s Honey Garlic Rub.  It is a nice and balanced rub that is not too sweet or too spicy.  It is freaking delicious.  Once it was rubbed, we placed the chicken on a preheated Weber kettle set up for offset cooking.   The cooking time for this chicken will be approximately two hours.

The two hour cooking time gave us plenty of time to test out the features of the Smoke Thermometer.

The Review

Smoke by Thermoworks

The Smoke comes with two pro-series temperature probes.  One probe is rounded and used for measuring pit temperature and one probe is pointed and used for measuring meat temperature.  Both come with high quality braided wires and Thermoworks quality and accuracy.

Smoke Probes

The Smoke also comes with a base unit that connects right to the probes.  The base unit has easy to use buttons to turn on and off each alarm for each probe.  The base unit also includes easy controls to set the high and low alarms for each probe.  There is also a volume and back light button.  It is so simple to use that you really don’t need any instructions.

Base Unit

The final piece in the Smoke set is the wireless receiver.  It is small, but not so small that you think you will lose it.  The receiver includes a good sized LED display and a single button.  The button turns on the receiver, turns on and off the back light and also mutes alarms.  It is noted that the receiver alarms are sent and received from the base unit and if you turn off the alarms at the base unit, they are turned off at the receiver.

Smoke Receiver

The receiver has an amazing range.  The box says that the receiver is rated for 300 ft but we made it to every corner of our acre lot without losing the signal.  This is massive, especially when compared to similar wireless thermometers that use bluetooth.

Roughly 400ft from the smoker

Actually we had to walk down the block without direct line of site, roughly 900 ft away before we lost the signal.

Finally lost signal roughly 900ft away

This thing is awesome.  We checked each and every room of our house too.  Never lost the signal.  This is super awesome.

We recently switched to pellet smokers and sometimes they burn-out and lose their fire.  Now that we have the Smoke, we can get an alarm when the smoker cools.  That way we can run down and re-light the fire.  This is going to make our lives so much easier.  The fact that I can lay in bed without fear of losing the signal is gonna give me the little extra security I need to get a good night sleep.

We tested the meat probe against our calibrated thermapen and the temperatures were spot on.

In general, this new thermometer is awesome.  The receiver works great.  It has some of the best reception that we have seen on any wireless thermometer.  The quality of the device and probes are top notch.  As many of you know, I love Thermoworks products.  The reason being, they are high quality products that work time and time again.  If I ever have any issues, I call them up and they are more than happy to help.  This new wireless thermometer is a winner.

My only negative is that Thermoworks pro-grade thermometers usually come with some sort of carrying case. The Smoke has four different components and would definitely benefit from a carrying case that keeps everything together when it is not in use.  Without it, I could see easily misplacing the receiver or one of the probes.

Speaking of probes, If you do not need the pit probe, you can purchase another food probe for sensing the temperatures on two separate meats.  If you are competing, this is money as you can monitor multiple meats without having a ton of devices.

Smoked Chicken

Back to the Honey Garlic Chicken

After two hours, the food alarm started beeping and the chicken had hit 165 degrees in the breast.  I once again compared the Smoke temperature with the Thermapen temperature and both were dead on at 165 degrees.

The Smoke thermometer is one of the best new devices that we have tested from Thermoworks.  It was accurate, durable and the wireless signal was incredible.  If you are in the market for a wireless thermometer, the Smoke Thermometer is the best we have tried.

Smoked Honey Garlic Chicken and Thermoworks Smoke Review
Prep Time
5 mins
Cook Time
2 hrs
Total Time
2 hrs 5 mins
 
A super simple and delicious smoked barbecue chicken. A little sweet, slight heat and that all so tasty garlicky flavor. This is a must try.
Course: Smoked Chicken
Cuisine: BBQ
Servings: 4 servings
Author: Rex
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Rinse off the chicken and pat dry.
  2. Cover with the rub.
  3. Place onto a smoker or grill preheated to 275 degrees and set for indirect heat.
  4. Smoke for approximately 2 hours or until the breast meat registers at 165 degrees.
  5. Remove and eat!

The honey garlic chicken was delicious and the honey garlic rub was one of the best that I have tried from Weber.

Smoked Honey Garlic Chicken

You have to try this simple and delicious recipe.

Disclaimer – The Thermoworks Smoke was provided to me free of charge for my review.   The review is impartial and SavoryReviews.com did not get paid or compensated in any way for this review.

Rex

Rex is an avid griller, barbecuer and bacon enthusiast. He is the Pitmaster for the Rex BBQ competition team. Rex was also featured on the TV show American Grilled. If you have any questions or wish to have Rex decode your favorite dish, click on the ASK REX link in the menu above.

View all posts by Rex →

6 thoughts on “Smoked Honey Garlic Chicken and Thermoworks Smoke Review

  1. I know what I want for Christmas! The Smoke sounds like the tool I have been waiting for and everything I would expect from Thermoworks… oh, and the chicken looks great too!

    1. Steve,

      I love it. After using it for multiple cooks, it has saved my butt already. I put on a couple of pork butts on last weekend and went to bed. Ended up getting awaken by an alarm that the temperature spiked on my Traeger (you can set high and low pit temps). I made it out there to adjust everything before the fire went out. Went back to bed and finished the bbq with no other issues. If I wouldn’t have had the Smoke to alert me, the Traeger would have gone over temp by over 100 degrees and then waiting on the temperature to return to normal the fire would have been extinguished. Once the fire is out there is no more cook. Especially if you sleeping. I totally recommend it. Hope you get one for Christmas! Fingers crossed for you.

  2. Thanks for this review. You addressed all my questions about the Smoke. I have a Traeger as well, so I will be asking and receiving this for Christmas! I agree it needs a case. ps. One Traeger question, what caused the temperature to spike (I can’t get mine above 370 degrees), and how does a rise in temperature cause the fire to go out?

    1. Stacey,

      The smoke worked awesome and is a great addition for Traeger owners. As for the rise in temperature causing the fire to go out: Sometimes you get more pellets coming out of the auger than normal/or the wind picks up and chills the smoker, and then the wind just stops causing a quick rise in temperature. Both of these can cause the fire to spike in temperature. Once the temperature spikes, the system stops adding pellets till the temperature dips. If the spike is so high, by the time that the temperature gets back down to the temperature that causes the pellet auger to start up again, the fire could have burned out. Basically the system stops adding pellets till the temperature dips and then it is too late. Alternatively, sometimes the fire burns out without a spike. Basically the timing of the system auger is too low. The Traeger does not add pellets fast enough to keep the fire going. This is a simple fix that you can adjust using the programmable p setting. Traegers are great, but sometimes outside forces throw them off. The smoke is insurance to make sure that does not happen without you knowing. Hope you get one for Christmas!

      Rex

  3. Rex,

    Thanks so much for clarifying this for me. Now I understand what was causing the temperature to drop suddenly. I can’t wait to try out your recipe with my new Smoke!

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