Little Chief

My only regret is not getting the bigger version! This smoker is so easy to use, and produces incredible results. I wish I had known how easy it was to smoke foods years ago. I bought the extra rack, and the plastic drying screens to expand the capacity and smoke smaller items. One of the first things I tried was raw jumbo shrimp. 60-90 minutes and these were the best shrimp I ever had! The smoker itself does a great job keeping the heat at a consistent temperature, and while it seemed somewhat flimsy at first, it's well made and does exactly what it's supposed to do! The front door panel lifts off easily, but also holds in all the smoke during operation. Adding wood chips in the pan is simple with the small door panel so you don't lose all the heat and smoke. You can use this to complete dry meats out to make jerky, or adding some apple cider or water to a tray on the bottom allows food to absorb tons of flavor, but not dry out so you can transfer it to a hot grill for quick searing. I put lean ground beef patties in for about 2 hours, then flash grill for a minute or two and serve. Easily the most flavorful, juicy burgers I've ever had! Finally was able to successfully make incredible baby back ribs myself! And chicken legs turn into a whole new food group after several hours in the smoker, then baked the rest of the way!

I bought my first "Little Chief" smoker back in the early 90's - So some 25 years ago...It was then manufactured by the Luhr-Jensen company, an outfit that also specialized in Salmon fishing lures. Even back in the 90's this smoker had been around for years - and it's had a very strong following since the very beginning. Rare is the outdoorsman in the PacNW or Alaska who hasn't smoked salmon on one of these simple but highly effective smokers. OK - So...Lets clear the air right now on what this smoker is NOT. It is NOT a "cooker" that will handle a pork butt, a brisket flat or even a rack of ribs (for THOSE products I highly recommend the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker). The Little Chief does NOT have a rheostat - so adjusting the temp is out of the question. While it will be affected to some degree by ambient air temp, It is designed to run at 160-165 degrees and slowly -smoke- products like fish (salmon, trout, etc) sausage, jerky, etc. The smoker itself is -very- lightweight aluminum and is so simple to put together and operate a child could do it. It comes with a nice 50+ page booklet of recipes, cooking instructions and spare parts info - that again, even a child could decipher. The food product produced by the Little Chief (I've used it primarily for Smoked Salmon, Beef Jerky, Cheese and Nuts and Smoked Sausage) is in my opinion of a higher quality than the same products when purchased at retail. I highly recommend the Little Chief Smoker for smoking these types of products. Five stars - Getcha one.

This is not my first Little Chief. Orderedit because I know they are a good product, and with neat shortages because of people panicking over covid, I figured it may be a good idea to get one before there is a shortage on these smokers. Anyway, it appears that they have made some changes to the Little Chief. The things you put the racks on are different, and I think it's a little wider now than it used to be. The smoker worked right out of the box, no issues with the hesting element (beyond the fact that there is no temperature control, nor a thermometer (but as I said, I've already owned one of these in the past, so I knew that already) only setup involved was screwing the handles onto it, putting in the racks/drip tray, and, of course, plugging it in. I ordered it on the 22nd of May and it is now the 23rd and am already putting it to good use. This thing is great for beef jerky and smoked salmon. Can't wait to start making those again. Currently, to test it out, I have a giant chunk of pork and some really big boneless chicken breasts in it now. Will update this with pics of the food when it's done, if I remember. Anyway, you can't go wrong with a Little Chief.

Shame on me for not reading up on the description and previous reviews first before buying this thing. While it works fine, 165 degrees is not hot enough to cook anything but very thin strips of meat (i.e. beef jerky, thinly sliced salmon fillets). While I'm planning on keeping the Little Chief, I'm going to have to build an insulated box to (hopefully) get it to do what I wanted it to do. As far as functionality and design as it is intended, it's very nice and user friendly and assembly was a breeze. **update** I "built" a nice insulating box with 1" reflective Styrofoam board (I just taped it together with reflective hvac tape so it's not exactly heavy duty construction) but it works great now for smoking pork, ribs, chicken, etc. If you follow the same idea, please make sure you make the box large enough for about 6" of air space on all sides as well as the top. It doesn't have to be air tight either. A little ventilation is a good thing. I recommend getting a wireless thermometer to monitor your air and meat temperature and watch it closely the first few times you use it to ensure you're getting the results you want.

This seems like a good idea for a dedicated fish smoker, but buyer be warned, the heating element has no control and we can't get it to keep a temp anywhere near what is needed. Even wrapped in a blanket it only holds 140 f. If you search for reviews through Google you will see that this is a well known problem. I would recommend looking elsewhere for a smoker. We are going to try to replace the element with an adjustable hotplate as we already got rid of the box so we can't return it.

Esta súper fácil de usar y el resultado es un ahumado excelente, la verdad es una súper buena compra , lo usamos ya para varias reuniones y ha sido todo un éxito...

easy to use and easy to put together. highly recommend this product !

Muy bueno funcional y simple