BrianBishop
TVWBB Member
With all the excitement surrounding the news of a 14.5" wsm being offered by Weber I figured I should show off my most recent cook. It was just some chicken thighs that I marinated in a couple different Sweet Baby Ray marinades that I picked up. Teriyaki and buffalo. I left them sit in the marinade overnite and loaded up the mini with some of my recently made, homemade lump charcoal along with some apple chunks.
(I plan to make another post detailing my method for making lump, but questions about that are welcome here as well...)
I acquired a new diffuser, a 9" cake pan which should allow the air to flow better as I mentioned the heat issues with my last cook... This posed a new problem though as my charcoal ring (which I have now decided to remove) is so tall that it sits inside the tamale pot and doesn't allow the cake pan to rest on its intended hangars. It was laying on top of the coals. I just changed my strategy and instead of having my typical 2 cooking levels this time I set the cake pan on the lower rack and just cooked on the top level. Once the charcoal ring is removed the cake pan will be able to reside in its intended location...
Most likely a combination of better airflow and using lump charcoal, I was able to maintain the higher temperatures required for chicken without any trouble at all. Since I was limited to just one cooking rack, I had to cook the chicken in two batches, each just over an hour. It was only the two of us so it didn't hurt our dinner plans any. Here's how the first batch turned out.
The chicken turned out very moist and delicious, but, even while maintaining temps around 350 throughout the cook, the skin was still not quite to my liking. This is likely because it was still covered in marinade when I put them on to cook... Sadly, the best skin I've put out came off the gas grill
As a bit of an experiment, I opened the vents wide after I took off the second batch to see how hot it could get. Once it peaked 440 I was satisfied and shut it down.
Here is whats left of the charcoal after probably 3+ hours of high heat. Notice, the recycled briquettes I started in the chimney and poured over the lump stuck around for the whole cook, although they're just lumps of ash now.
Aside from the difficulty with the new diffuser clashing with the charcoal basket, the cook went great and I really enjoyed firing up the mini again! As for the new Weber offering, I'm still on the fence. It's pretty enjoyable putting out great food from something I cobbled together with my own two hands and a lot of direction from the fine folks here on tvwbb!
Thanks for reading.
-Brian
(I plan to make another post detailing my method for making lump, but questions about that are welcome here as well...)
I acquired a new diffuser, a 9" cake pan which should allow the air to flow better as I mentioned the heat issues with my last cook... This posed a new problem though as my charcoal ring (which I have now decided to remove) is so tall that it sits inside the tamale pot and doesn't allow the cake pan to rest on its intended hangars. It was laying on top of the coals. I just changed my strategy and instead of having my typical 2 cooking levels this time I set the cake pan on the lower rack and just cooked on the top level. Once the charcoal ring is removed the cake pan will be able to reside in its intended location...
Most likely a combination of better airflow and using lump charcoal, I was able to maintain the higher temperatures required for chicken without any trouble at all. Since I was limited to just one cooking rack, I had to cook the chicken in two batches, each just over an hour. It was only the two of us so it didn't hurt our dinner plans any. Here's how the first batch turned out.
The chicken turned out very moist and delicious, but, even while maintaining temps around 350 throughout the cook, the skin was still not quite to my liking. This is likely because it was still covered in marinade when I put them on to cook... Sadly, the best skin I've put out came off the gas grill
As a bit of an experiment, I opened the vents wide after I took off the second batch to see how hot it could get. Once it peaked 440 I was satisfied and shut it down.
Here is whats left of the charcoal after probably 3+ hours of high heat. Notice, the recycled briquettes I started in the chimney and poured over the lump stuck around for the whole cook, although they're just lumps of ash now.
Aside from the difficulty with the new diffuser clashing with the charcoal basket, the cook went great and I really enjoyed firing up the mini again! As for the new Weber offering, I'm still on the fence. It's pretty enjoyable putting out great food from something I cobbled together with my own two hands and a lot of direction from the fine folks here on tvwbb!
Thanks for reading.
-Brian