a bigger chicken

This time a 7# roaster with some changes that seemed to be improvements:
#1 Royal Oak Lump Charcoal that seemed to light faster and burn a little hotter than the Cowboy Brand I had earlier:

#2 A change in the indirect cooking set up to allow for cooking of a larger bird over water:

#3 Chunks of hickory wood for smoking instead of chips:

The smoking went on for the entire cook without adding any wood.

It was a rainy afternoon/ evening, so I put the cooker under the portico on my detached garage;
at this point I feel experienced enough to avoid flare ups when opening the lid; I started the fire with
the dome lid shut and both drafts fully open. It seemed the Royal Oak was less prone to sparking.
It was a cool windy evening 45F ( 35F with the wind chill). I aimed for about 325F on the dome thermometer. It was 400F when I was ready to put it on but came down to about 325F after putting on the chunks, the diffuser rack, the pan of water, the cast iron grate and the bird and closing it back up. I had to choke the lower draft down to 1 or less as it was positioned to face a stiff NW breeze. The top draft was at 1 or 2 depending on the temperature's recent direction. Perhaps due to the wind, I found it a bit more difficult to hold the temp steady and adjustments seemed to be required periodically. Here is the result after 94 minutes with an internal breast temperature of 165F.

You can also see the little plastic popup thermometer has worked too.

I have smoked quite a few chickens with many different cookers over the years but this has to be one of my best efforts. It was intensely smokey with a strong hickory flavor and as usual, with this kamado, moist to perfection!