Smokey Joe Gold grilling in 25 degree weather


 

David Pace

New member
Greetings. I'd cooked with Smokey Joe Silvers for a bunch of years off and on, buying one every couple of years to take to football games. I always loved them, and liked how I could get them super hot for searing steaks and such.

I then had a several year grilling hiatus, cooking just once or twice per year, due to apartment dwelling and limited tailgating.

Recently, I bought a Smokey Joe Gold without realizing the vent situation and became frustrated by my inability to achieve good temps. I couldn't get any decent color on my food, etc.

Anywho, I found this topic last week and read some of the discussions, and just wanted to say THANKS! I tried configuration 1 posted by Paul A. B, I believe, where you use like 3/4 of a chimney full of charcoal (I used regular Kingsford briquettes) and then put a small rectangular drip pan in the SJG and then put lit charcoal on both sides, perpendicular to the vents, which I left open. I can link to the very helpful diagram Paul posted if anyone is interested.

This worked GREAT. It was like 25 degrees out this afternoon by me and very windy (which I'm sure helped a little). I first cooked 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts which I'd marinated in italian dressing and then cut and pounded thin. Cooked for a few minutes with the lid off directly over the coals to color them up, then flipped and cooked a few more minutes without the lid. Then I moved them closer to the center of the grill (over the drip pan) and put on the lid to let them finish cooking. Delicious, and beautiful color. Finally, some HEAT!!

I then did a similar treatment to some medium thickness pork chops. Again, beautiful color and cooked to about 148 (the one I checked) internal.

Finally, by that point I figured my fire had probably burned down a little and I threw on some wingettes. I cooked these for, what, 20-25 minutes with the lid on at all times and I just got in there and rotated and flipped as needed to make sure they cooked and didn't burn.

All in all, a great grilling session. The SJG went for about an hour to cook all three meats. I'm curious how much oomph it had left in it, but it was really cold out, so I came in and ate
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Thanks again, all, especially Paul AB for the diagrams!
 
Could you post the links to the diagram? I bought a SJP this fall (have not used it yet - but it's going to the beach this summer and I'm hoping I can get some high heat from it). I was going to do a modification to it - but me and tools don't always work so well together - so if there is another solution, I'd like to try it...
Thanks,
Rick
 
Those are the ones. Thanks for posting.

The grill didn't get absurdly hot like I remember the Silver getting when I really loaded it up with charcoal, but it was hot enough to get some nice color on the chicken and a nice sear on the chops. And it was the perfect temp for the wings, 30 minutes later.

I may fire it up today for kicks since I'm off despite my having leftovers from yesterday....
 
Thanks for the tip. I did try lump way back in the SJ Silver, but I haven't yet tried it in the Gold. It burns hotter but for not as long? Anything I need to do differently?
 

 

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