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I have a confession to make. I was a little intimidated to start cooking on a drum smoker. I know they are a mainstay on the competitive barbecue circuit, and I’ve had great food cooked on them, bu it just seemed different from how I was used to cooking.
The new Oklahoma Joe’s Bronco drum smoker has completely changed that. They sent me one to test out and it’s been on of my favorite cookers.
What I like most about it is it’s easy to use and it’s versatile. I would recommend this to my friends over traditional charcoal grills or dedicated smokers because it’s great for both.
Features and Specs
- Retail price of $499.99 (check price – OKJ’s Website – Amazon)
- 284 square inches of traditional grilling space but you can hand meat to cooks lots of food at once
- Fits up to 8 lbs of charcoal and wood and can smoke for 14+ hours
- Includes 9 meat hooks and 3 hangers
- Large rubber tires make it easy to move around
Grill and Smoker in One
When I think of drum smokers, I think of only smoking meat low and slow. I mean, smoker is in the name of it!
That’s completely false though with the Bronco. It has the ability to smoke or grill, and I don’t mean it kinda does both. It’s great at doing either cooking method.
Smoking
There are two different ways that you can smoke meat on the Bronco. You can smoke flat on the cooking grate, just like any other charcoal grill, or you can hang the meat.
If you’re smoking with your food on the cooking grate, there’s a diffuser directly below that’s inbetween the grate and the fire. It’s a perfect spot to put a water pan if you like to use one while smoking.
For hanging, there are included hangers and meat hooks. The position of the hangers in relation to the fire can be moved, and they lock into place.
My favorite way to cook ribs is hot and fast, I like some firmness to the bite. This smoker is perfect for that way of cooking.
The smoke circles around and gives ample smoke flavor while the drippings hit the coals below and give almost a grilled meat taste. It’s absolutely delicious.
You can cook just about any type of meat on the hangers too. Brisket, chicken, turkey, other cuts of beef, all can be cooked like this. Plus, since you’re using vertical space in the drum, it means you can cook quite a bit of food at once.
My only minor beef (sorry, had to) with the smoker is with the grease cup. It’s positioned at the bottom, so you can’t see how full it is. I find that when I’m spritzing through a cook, the liquid accumulates in the grease cup.
Then, I go to move the grill and I end up with greasy black liquid on the driveway. This is avoidable though by remembering to empty it when your done.
The design of the grease cup is inherent to the type of cooker, so there’s not much that could have be done by Oklahoma Joe’s to fix this minor annoyance. It’s just worth pointing out.
Grilling
Just like smoking, there also are two different ways that you can grill on the Bronco. If you’re cooking multiple things or going from smoking to grilling, you can leave the fire in the bottom position and you’ll get temperatures around 450 to 500 degrees F.
This was helpful for cooking ribs because I like to smoke them, then finish them off on the grill while the BBQ sauce sets. It made it so I could easily switch between smoking and grilling.
The other way to grill gives you higher heat, and it works just like any other charcoal grill. You can move the charcoal basket from the bottom of the drum to resting on the diffuser.
This is perfect for traditional grilling and you can sear like this. I found that in the higher position a piece of split wood will fit in the middle of the charcoal basket, and with the offset chimney on the top, you can do 2-zone cooking.
Fire Management
You can start the bronco either with a charcoal chimney or with fire starters in the charcoal basket. I found using a chimney was quicker to getting to clean smoke, so I preferred doing that. You can also use wood chunks for additional smoke flavor.
A nice feature with the Bronco is there is an access door on the bottom that lets you rotate out the charcoal basket. This makes it easy to start initially, but more importantly, you can refuel without having to remove your food like with other drum smokers.
Fire management is where the Bronco really shines over other grills. There is a damper that you slide open on the intake and one on the exhaust, so you can easily dial in the temperature you want.
The are numbered and I found that at lower temperatures the number would loosely correlate with how high you want the temperature. For example, if I wanted to smoke at 250 degrees F, I’d move both dampers to between the 2 and the 3. It gives a good start, then you can adjust it as you see where the temperature goes.
Once you dial in the temperature, the Bronco has impressive temperature holding. You don’t have to do anything for long stretches of time.
Design
I’m a big fan of how Oklahoma Joe’s designed the grill even beyond how it cooks. I like that it has two side shelves, which is hard to find on a drum cooker, and it even has hooks for more space.
The shelf that’s opposite of the large tires can be used to move around the grill. It feels sturdy for doing that, and with the help of the large tires, it’s really easy to move this grill around.
I like the overall look of the grill too. The mixing of metal finishes looks good, and the thermal break in one of the shelves in branded colors adds to the overall visual appeal.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a charcoal grill and you like to smoke too, or if you want a smoker that can also grill, this is the one to buy. If I were shopping for a charcoal kettle, I’d spend the extra money and buy this instead.
It’s versatile and fun to cook on. Plus, with how easy fire management is, it makes long smokes a breeze.