Experimental Sunday


 

Dan C. FL

TVWBB Pro
Yesterday was my grilling day for this past weekend. I mentioned in another thread that I had recently gotten the Weber Rotisserie kit, a vortex, and a stainless steel grate for my 18" kettle. Friday after work, we acquired all of the groceries needed for lots of cooking (I found Tri Tip again!!! I also got a whole chicken to test out the rotisserie and a 9 lbs. slab of pork belly because bacon). I figured that I would cook quite a bit of meat so we'd have leftovers for the week. So, here's how Cook Day went:

1) I unpacked and cleaned the new rotisserie kit. Once I figured out how to set it up, I pulled the chicken out of the fridge and covered the skin in olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, nutmeg, and thyme. I set up the 22" kettle for indirect heat with a drip pan in the middle and coals on both sides. I added a couple of hand fulls of cherry chips to both sides and then I put the rotisserie ring and motor on and grabbed the chicken. Here she goes:

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I remembered seeing someone post on here about doing baked potatoes directly on the charcoal. I decided that I wanted to try it, so I posted a couple of questions on another thread. Thanks to Rich, I got the idea of how I wanted to do the potato, olive oil, salt, pepper, and double wrapped the potato. I was going to cook it with the trip tip later on, but realized that the tri tip cook would be too short to match up with cooking the potato for about an hour. So, I threw the potato in with the rotisserie chicken.

After about an hour and fifteen minutes, the breast was up to temp and the thigh was within a few degrees. So, I pulled the bird off of the grill. I also pulled the potato off and set it in the oven on warm. Here's the bird before slicing:

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I pulled off the wings, sliced the breast, and then left it for the wife to pick clean.

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You know that I had to taste it. I didn't check the packaging to see if the bird was one of those that had been filled up with water, but this was THE JUICIEST BIRD I've ever seen. I tried to get a picture of the juices to show you guys, but I don't know if they'll be visible or not.

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The juices covered the entire bottom of the cookie sheet. You could smell the cherry smoke smell on the bird, but sadly I didn't use enough to really impart the flavor into the bird. The only negative to this cook was the fact that the skin was rubbery, not crispy. I'm pretty sure that that is because I let the coals burn down too low before adding additional coals. Not sure about that though, so if you have thoughts, tips or tricks let me know.

2) As the bird was resting, I snuffed out the few remaining briquets and started getting set up for what would become last night's dinner...Tri Tip!!! I had pre-made the rub from Chris' Tri Tip article while the chicken was cooking. So, it was pretty much just get the grill back up and running, season the meat and go. I had never used a two-zone fire set up before last night. I've always done indirect with the drip pan in the middle and the coals on both sides. But, as I was in an experimenting mood, I decided to give it a shot with the tri tip. I also decided that I would try a reverse sear. The final experiment was using a new type of wood; I used two small chunks of Acadian Oak from Maine Grilling Woods. (I got a sampler box of their woods to try the other varieties they offer.)

Last time (which was the first time I had ever done tri tip) I overcooked it a bit. So, this time, I was more mindful of what I was doing. Once the wood started smoking, I threw the tri tip on the cold side of the grill. I checked the temp. at about 10 minutes. At 15 minutes, I was at 120*. So, I decided to do the sear part. A minute and a half on each side and off she comes to rest.

I cut the steak in half and was pleased with where it ended up.

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Finished slices:

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And, the plated pic with the baked potato:

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I have to confess again how much I love this cut of meat. Tender, flavorful, and lean. Just beautiful. I've had BBQ with oak before, so I kinda knew what to expect as far as the smoke flavor was concerned. Oak, to me is mild and kinda nondescript. The Maine Grilling Woods one was really good. So, I think I have settled on that for my tri tip going forward. I also really liked cooking it using the two zone set up. I may play around with searing first then going to the indirect side of the grill next time. I also think that going forward, I'm going to still use the spices that are in the basic rub (except MSG/Accent) but I am going to do it by hand and go lighter on it. We've decided that for us, the heavily rubbed version is just a little too salty.

As for the potato, the skin was nice and crispy and the "meat" was light and fluffy. I might have overcooked it a wee bit as the skin was pretty darn dark, but it didn't taste burnt. I will definitely cook my potatoes this way in the future. Thanks Rich!!

So, that's it for now. Next weekend, BACON!
 
OH!!!! You can see the juices!! Here's how to see them... I used the same cookie sheet for the chicken and the tri tip. You'll notice that you can see the reflections in the chicken juice pic. I'm happy.
 
Great cooks Dan, glad the TT came out like you wanted, looks perfect to me along with the tater. Can't beat roti chicken for moistness.
 
Weird Science or BBQ Mania? I see a method to your madness. Looking great!

Congrats on the Tri Tip.
 

 

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