# minion method on brinkman bullet



## dpenrod (Jul 22, 2012)

will the minion method work on a bullet smoker?  like the idea of not having to baby sit the grill.  for chicken thighs, how many unlit briquettes would i need to put in the pan and how many lit should i use?


----------



## Nick Prochilo (Jul 22, 2012)

Yes. I use 1/3 of a chimney.


----------



## Toby Keil (Jul 26, 2012)

Minion method works great on my WSM but not sure about on a Brinkman. I only light about 10 briquets then once they're going, I pour em into the center of my main charcoal in the smoker.


----------



## Frank h (Sep 27, 2012)

dpenrod said:


> will the minion method work on a bullet smoker?  like the idea of not having to baby sit the grill.  for chicken thighs, how many unlit briquettes would i need to put in the pan and how many lit should i use?



Hi D...
No reason why the minion method wouldn't work on your brinkmann. Go for it!
Chicken thighs cook fairly quickly too , so it should be pretty easy. 
Do a beer can chicken sometime , then you'll appreciate not having to baby sit that smoker.


----------



## bigwheel (Sep 27, 2012)

Just to cover the bases here..if this is the regular old ECB type bullet..its going to need some air holes drilled in the firepan. Otherwise it aint going to be able to get hot enough to cook. Now if you have a model which allows air to the underside of the fire..I take this back of course.


----------



## Max1 (Sep 27, 2012)

I think they may have renamed that smoker to the Smoke and Grill last year, but anyway, I would have to agree with BW. If you can add a bunch of air holes to the charcoal pan to allow air in, otherwise the charcoal will smother itself. I had problems with my Vertical Brinkmann until I did this. Another issue if you are having a hard time retaining heat, just remove your water pan, I used a water pan for sometime, until Jeff (007bondJB) remarked in one of his videos that having a water really does not introduce anymore moister into your item that you are smoking. Some may disagree with the comment, but for me, the water pan did nothing. You are better off covering it with foil and putting some heat retaining rocks in it. 

A nice trick that I saw on youtube relating to your type of smoker is, if you have the 3 metal legs on the bottom that you set your fire pan on. Take those off from the inside and place them on the outside of the smoker. This gives you free access to your charcoal pan so you do not have to keep opening the door to stoke. Yes the pan will not hang in there but all you need is a brick to place under the pan.

Hope some of this all helps you out some.


----------



## Bob In Fla. (Sep 27, 2012)

Yep, the _Minion Method_ will work on just about any kind of a smoker where you have a large enough charcoal tray or basket.  On my _Stump's Tailgater_, I'll fill the tray with charcoal and light about 6 or 8 brick-ettes and put them in one corner.  Same idea as the Minion for a bullet smoker.



bigwheel said:


> Just to cover the bases here..if this is the regular old ECB type bullet..its going to need some air holes drilled in the firepan. Otherwise it aint going to be able to get hot enough to cook. Now if you have a model which allows air to the underside of the fire..I take this back of course.


 
Excellent point.  I know one guy that set his fire pan up as a target and shot a bunch of .22s into it.  Later, he wished he'd have shot from the bottom of the pan, so that the bent-out part of the holes pointed inside the pan.  It would have lifted the charcoal up just a bit and wouldn't have clogged with ashes quite as fast.  Now if he'd used a .38 or so, maybe the ash wouldn't have clogged the holes so easily.  Or maybe he just needed more holes?

BOB


----------



## Frank h (Sep 27, 2012)

I guess the brinkmann smoker I had was not as el cheapo , because the charcoal pan had louvres cut all around to let air in. So I will bow to your experience .


----------



## Frank h (Sep 27, 2012)

bigwheel said:


> Just to cover the bases here..if this is the regular old ECB type bullet..its going to need some air holes drilled in the firepan. Otherwise it aint going to be able to get hot enough to cook. Now if you have a model which allows air to the underside of the fire..I take this back of course.



I guess the brinkmann smoker I had was not as el cheapo , because the charcoal pan had louvres cut all around to let air in. So I will bow to you all's  experience .
I guess , now that I think on it , mine was a GOURMET smoker.....so maybe it was a step up in the brinkmann catalog.   So I would drill away on that pan and then minion method would work ok


----------



## bigwheel (Sep 27, 2012)

Ok..well thats a hoss of a different color so to speak. That is called a Gourmet. Lot more amendable to outside influences..no need to drill holes etc. Good score. I got one is how I know they are so good...lol. Now mine runs on some new fangled stuff called Electricity..you should try it sometime. No more stinky old charcoal. I know why Uncle Ben invented that stuff now.


----------



## Frank h (Sep 27, 2012)

bigwheel said:


> Ok..well thats a hoss of a different color so to speak. That is called a Gourmet. Lot more amendable to outside influences..no need to drill holes etc. Good score. I got one is how I know they are so good...lol. Now mine runs on some new fangled stuff called Electricity..you should try it sometime. No more stinky old charcoal. I know why Uncle Ben invented that stuff now.


 
did you put a hotplate in your brinkmann? seriously? how is that working? i toyed with that idea when i had mine cuz the temp was SO hard to control...


----------



## bigwheel (Sep 28, 2012)

Mine come already equipped with a heating element which appeared could fit in an electric oven. Which is mainly the reason I bought it. Same price as the charcoal model seems like. You can buy the elements separate at Academy Sports. Has not electrical control of the temps..but on a nice day out of the wind it usually pegs itself at around 295 which is ok for most things. Strong wind..cold..rain etc. its hard to keep the heat up. That is when you dunk the 55 gallon barrel or big wash tub down over the top..couple of bricks along the bottom to hold the barrel off the ground by a few inches so it can breathe. In that configuration it can cook in a combo tornado and blizzard. It also lives in the barrel when not in use. Like a garage for the car.


----------

