First Time chicken Rotisserie - Not Good


 
B

BGerman

New member
Morning. Treated ourselves to a Weber rotisserie. Tried out with a chicken. Not great result, need advice.

First was able to set up the chicken pretty well. I trussed (think that's the term) nice and tight. The amazon recommended drip pans though were too high so I cut them down and placed on the flavor bars. I think I am going to look for a reusable 1" pan for future use. It was enough to allow chicken to rotate and catch most of the drippings.

Now - think first mistake was using our traditional olive oil/herb marinade. We do this when we grill butterfly chicken - always comes out crispy. But think next time better use a dry rub.

I grilled on a Genesis 3 burner - used a medium - Off - Medium burner setup and had bbq going at about 350F. After 1.5 hrs nice and golden color, inside temp was at 175F. When I took it out, rested about 15 min, and started cutting - the skin just disintegrated - too mushy if that's a good term. Breast, thighs, legs meat were all donee nicey, lots of good moisture. It's the skin that didn't turn out right.

So ... whats the better way to have crispy skin, moist meat using a rotisserie?

Thanks
 
I have my Rotisserie on a Weber Kettle. I have charcoal baskets on each side of the Chicken and they are full of lit charcoal. I'm guessing that I'm cooking at over 400 degrees and a 5 lb. Chicken cooks in about 1 hr and 20 minutes. Crispy skin takes high temp. Try a hotter fire next time.
 
I don't know that there's a good answer. I usually cook on my rotisserie the exact same way. Medium Off Medium. Chicken skin is just one of those annoying things. What I find as ok, my wife generally won't touch. You might try putting one of the burners on high and see how that goes.
 
As the cooking method is more indirect with rotisserie I would think it would be more like an oven than a grill. My rotisseries run about 350 on kettles (I have 2 and love them)

If your willing to try a commercial dry rub try Paul Prudommes poultry magic also make sure you carefully dry the chicken with paper towel before seasoning. one trick I do is lift the skin and put rub underneath the skin. I also like to use a rub with brown sugar for carmelization like Basic BBQ rub in Steve Raichlen how to grill. If your looking for a good illustration on to season under the skin look at his beer can chicken recipe it the same cook book. I rotisserie them allot and get great results
 
Next time I would try using a dry rub, and basting with your marinade every 15 - 20 minutes. The marinade probably ran off, leaving the chicken to roast. I would check it at 165, then crank the heat up in the middle and turn off the other two and monitor it to allow the skin to crisp up.
 
Hi, I use my rotisserie a lot on my 57cm Performer and have one for my Spirit Grill too. In my humble opinion you will not obtain 'dry roast' crisp skin using either. The reason for this is that as the bird is constantly turning the juices created from the cooking process are continually moving around the exterior of said poultry meaning it will not then 'crisp up'. Traditional cooking in and oven or BBQ will allow for a period after basting to allow the skin to crisp somewhat.

What I tend to do is remove the skin after using the rotisserie and putting over the residual coals/gas grill to obtain the crispy effect you are looking. This was you get the best of both worlds - deliciously cooked, moist, tender bird and crispy skin flavoured with whatever your choice of season was.

My opinion for what it's worth.
 
You might try starting with an air cooled chicken instead of the spongy water-soaked ones that we usually get at grocery stores.

I splurged a little for air cooled chickens at Whole Foods when I got my rotisseries for the Genesis. As an experiment, I didn't tell my wife they were different from our usual. She proclaimed it was the best chicken I had ever cooked.

After a lifetime of dealing with waterlogged chickens, it's odd to open the plastic and find a dry chicken inside.

Another alternative is to use "regular" chicken but dry brine it overnight in an open pan in the fridge. That will help dry the skin out.
 
I coat them in oil before I put a rub on them.

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Look at the water added before purchase and treat it accordingly. Cheap chicks are loaded with water, premium chicks less so. If you have the time... air dry overnight in the fridge with a dry rub or s and p. Finally, higher temps closer to 400 would help.

I wonder out loud if 30 min warm up on counter before cooking would help?
 
keep doing what you're doing except crank the heat way up for the last 15 minutes or so. Watch carefully so that you don't burn your chicken. You might want to remove the drip pan and turn on your center burner on high for the last little bit of cooking time. That's what I do when I rotisserie chicken on my Weber gasser.
 
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