K'man

G-A-R-Y have a look here https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiWivjXrrLcAhWwVt8KHXk4BNcQFjABegQIBRAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Famazingribs.com%2Ftested-recipes%2Fspice-rubs-and-pastes&usg=AOvVaw1JrXhHeHRpb-Qtq6XlfUTF One of many sites. I really like some if his rubs. You might consider the Big Bad Beef Rub for brisket. I really liked it on beef. I also use the Simon and Garfunkel rub for pork & chicken. There's a lamb rub there too.

I love chicken thighs so the other day I decided to cook 4. I really like Franks Buffalo sauce so I marinated the thighs overnight. Sometimes I will inject the thighs, sometimes I'll take a tsp. and just slip a little sauce under the skin but without a doubt Franks Buffalo is my favourite. I decided to use some Panko crumbs. Thought I had some but no and the stores were closed. I had a part bag of Old El Paso thick cut corn chips. Popped a few into my bullet and made crumbs. Put the wet thighs in a container with the crumbs, gave them a shake, then into the Kamado at 400˚F. There was enough oil in the chips, the thighs almost tasted deep fried. The corn chip taste with Franks Buffalo was a perfect blend of flavours. Very crispy. Note the sun played a role in the colour of the first cook. Did them again with a similar result. Excellent alternative.

I'd recommend the two stone set-up for sure. I'm not great at launching off a peel so have resorted to using a steel pizza pan. I've had good success on the Akorn Jr. placing the smokin stone on top of the cast iron cooking grate and then the pizza pan on the stone. Sugar in the crust can become a problem for cooks over the 550˚F range.

Well got to hand it to you KK when it comes to baking bread you chose some of the hardest flours to work with and still came out on top. Well done for your first time out! Multigrain flours are very dense and can be a challenge but as far as I'm concerned rye flour is even more difficult. Reminds me a lot of mixing cement. That was loaf looks excellent.

Great looking cook. I don't think you could go wrong with that setup. Everyone has their style, now you have yours.

KK if you use a starter that is mixed equally with flour & water by weight....and if you use as an example a100 grams of starter in a recipe then you count 50 grams of it as part of your water and 50 grams as part of the weight of the flour. It's easy then to stay on target for a certain hydration. Another thing you can do with your starter is if you are planning a white loaf feed it white flour. If you know your next bake say in 2-3 days time will be whole wheat you can start feeding it more whole wheat flour. Same thing for rye. You can switch it over easily once it's established. A trick I also learned is if you want to get a faster start from the fridge put your jar of starter in a pot and using fairly warm water fill the pot up to the level of the starter. The added warmth will activate the natural yeast a lot more quickly. If you want to check your starter to see if it's ready for use, drop a small amount in some water. If the starter floats it's ready to use, if it sinks it's not. Hope this helps.

Smoke comes from low temps, crisp comes from high heat. The good thing about thighs is they are hard to dry out. You could start them around 250˚F for twenty minutes or so with smoke then open up and get to 400˚F or so as quick as you can. Some salty rub on the skin will help and so does baking powder. Personally I don't like the flavour of the baking powder but it works. Here's a link https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiI3tS179jaAhXLxlkKHZnECxAQFggxMAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fthecookful.com%2Fbake-chicken-wings-crispy%2F&usg=AOvVaw3J1A6CEq84cBHrGTAxK4hZ

I like to marinade them in Franks buffalo for a few hours before I cook them. I cook them hot and give them a light brushing during the cook before I take them off. I don't like them wet either. They shouldn't get wet in that basket I wouldn't think.

Please tell us more about your cook.

Wow a sight to behold for sure. Very neat cook.

Great looking shoulder cook KK. I know in a lot of cases more real estate is better but there is something about the size of the Jr. that just excels. I cook shoulders in mine once in a while for P/P and they turn out great every time. Love the chicken over potato idea, never done that.

They are very popular here in NL. Often sold in freezer packs of 6 or 8 at a time.

Looking forward to the rest of your pics and the result KK. I'm really interested in how much smoke flavor you get cooking this way? It looks like it would be delicious.

If I'm not mistaken I'd say in the first graph, your meat went on at around 3:00am(if your clock is correct) and progressed beautifully from there until 3:00pm or so when you hit 200˚F and shut down. Awesome result. Not sure what to make of the second result. It's all in learning how to use whatever equipment you have.

I had an ATC once, used it with my WSM but we did not get along all that well, probably just me as I'm not a tecky kind of guy. An observation I did make however when doing brisket on my Keg was there was no place I could put my grill temp probe(18" cooking surface) that was not affected in the beginning by a big chunk of cold meat hitting the cooking grate. So my thoughts would carry over to the ATC grill probe. If I interpret @damascusmaker's chart properly looks like his meat temp probe took a big drop shortly before 3:00am suggesting the meat hit the grate then but the fan did not seem to over compensate which counters my concern. I have no practical experience to share but it does remind me of lessons learned in the beginning of my cooks when adding meat would cause the dome temp to drop and me to over re-act by opening vents to compensate. That is until I thought about it. Really the fire never changed by the addition of the meat. Also then as the meat cooks it will have an affect on the dome temp as well showing temps rising as the meat cooks. I'm thinking it's like anything else....seems to be a balancing act and I'm thinking the further away you can place the grill temp probe from the meat being cooked the better.