Dave Stevens
TVWBB Member
Morning all,
Finally got round to my first cook last night, had to wait till the kids were in bed and it was raining, but hey, we soldier on!
I'd really appreciate any feedback on anything I should do differently.
I'd invested in a few basic pieces of equipment:
An oven thermometer
Thermapen
Welding gloves
A timer
Poultry shears
I spatchcocked the chicken, first time doing this, it looks weird! And did a simple marinade with olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary, garlic and nutmeg and let it sit in the fridge for about 6hrs. I was kind of following the first lesson in Gary Wiviot's low and slow book. I started by tipping 3/4 of a chimney of unlit charcoal - restaurant grade lumpwood - and added a chunk of oak. Then I half filled the chimney and lit it. That chimney is a cool piece of kit!
And tipped that onto the coals and added another piece of oak. I waited until it stopped smoking.
I had one disaster when the charcoal grate slipped off the supports, seems like a design flaw there. Then added the chicken and a pan of water and shut the lid
It sure was smokin'!
I was really nervous about getting the temperature in the right range and was expecting the lid thermometer to be useless so I positioned the oven thermometer so that I could see it through the vent if I shined a torch through. This was really useful as I knew what was happening and could compare to the lid temp. Being an anal kind of guy I thought I'd record some readings.
Both vents were fully open for the first 1/2 hour then closed by about 1/3 for the remaining cook.
At 13 minutes the lid was 175 C/340 F and the grate was at 120 C/250 F
18 mins, lid temp 190 C/370 F, grate temp 130 C/265 F
30 mins, grate temp was 150 C/300 F
I opened the lid and checked the coals, only about 1/3 had turned to ash so I didn't bother adding any more, just closed the lid and shut down the vent 1/3.
At 42 mins, lid temp was 155 C/305 F, grate was also 155C/305 F
At 1 hr, ld temp was 150 C/300F, grate was about 145C and this is how the bird looked, let's just say I was starting to get a little bit excited.
The juices were running clear, but it was dark so I checked with the thermapen in the thigh meat and it was 71 degC so I put it back for another 10 minutes.
Then when the temp was about 74 degC I crisped the skin directly over the coals. Unfortunately I mashed up the bird with the tongs a bit but I was pretty chuffed with how it came out after a total of about 1 hr 20 or so.
I cut up a couple of pieces and just had it with some mayonnaise.
Good god, it was the best roast chicken I've ever had, incredibly moist with lovely crispy wings, none of it was dry and the smoke flavour was there in spades. Really, really lovely and I think I'm hooked!
I thought that the comparison of the lid and grate temp was pretty interesting.
Cheers
Dave
Finally got round to my first cook last night, had to wait till the kids were in bed and it was raining, but hey, we soldier on!
I'd really appreciate any feedback on anything I should do differently.
I'd invested in a few basic pieces of equipment:
An oven thermometer
Thermapen
Welding gloves
A timer
Poultry shears
I spatchcocked the chicken, first time doing this, it looks weird! And did a simple marinade with olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary, garlic and nutmeg and let it sit in the fridge for about 6hrs. I was kind of following the first lesson in Gary Wiviot's low and slow book. I started by tipping 3/4 of a chimney of unlit charcoal - restaurant grade lumpwood - and added a chunk of oak. Then I half filled the chimney and lit it. That chimney is a cool piece of kit!
And tipped that onto the coals and added another piece of oak. I waited until it stopped smoking.
I had one disaster when the charcoal grate slipped off the supports, seems like a design flaw there. Then added the chicken and a pan of water and shut the lid
It sure was smokin'!
I was really nervous about getting the temperature in the right range and was expecting the lid thermometer to be useless so I positioned the oven thermometer so that I could see it through the vent if I shined a torch through. This was really useful as I knew what was happening and could compare to the lid temp. Being an anal kind of guy I thought I'd record some readings.
Both vents were fully open for the first 1/2 hour then closed by about 1/3 for the remaining cook.
At 13 minutes the lid was 175 C/340 F and the grate was at 120 C/250 F
18 mins, lid temp 190 C/370 F, grate temp 130 C/265 F
30 mins, grate temp was 150 C/300 F
I opened the lid and checked the coals, only about 1/3 had turned to ash so I didn't bother adding any more, just closed the lid and shut down the vent 1/3.
At 42 mins, lid temp was 155 C/305 F, grate was also 155C/305 F
At 1 hr, ld temp was 150 C/300F, grate was about 145C and this is how the bird looked, let's just say I was starting to get a little bit excited.
The juices were running clear, but it was dark so I checked with the thermapen in the thigh meat and it was 71 degC so I put it back for another 10 minutes.
Then when the temp was about 74 degC I crisped the skin directly over the coals. Unfortunately I mashed up the bird with the tongs a bit but I was pretty chuffed with how it came out after a total of about 1 hr 20 or so.
I cut up a couple of pieces and just had it with some mayonnaise.
Good god, it was the best roast chicken I've ever had, incredibly moist with lovely crispy wings, none of it was dry and the smoke flavour was there in spades. Really, really lovely and I think I'm hooked!
I thought that the comparison of the lid and grate temp was pretty interesting.
Cheers
Dave
