• Enter the TVWB 27th Anniversary Prize Drawing for a chance to win a Weber Traveler Portable Gas Grill! Click here to enter!

Chicken thighs on a Weber Performer


 
R

Richard K Wong

New member
I just bought a Weber Performer. I've marinated about 10 pounds of chicken thighs and I'm going to give it a test drive tonight

From reading some Weber recipe books, the suggestion is for indirect heat with two charcoal holders with 25 pieces inside in between a water pan, then sear for 5 min and cook for 30-40 and test for doneness if the thighs are firm and no juices run

I read somewhere that the Performer runs hot and you don't need as much charcoal. Should I just go with one holder or two of 25 ?

Does it in fact run hotter then cool quite drastically and constant topping up after the hour ?
i.e my WSM with one chimney lit and a quarter unlit gives me around 225-250 for a good 4-5 hours i.e perfect for ribs, whereas I'm hearing that you need to replenish about 8 pieces to each holder per hour with the Performer

Are thigh pieces too thin to really get an accurate temperature reading compared to checking thigh temp on a whole chicken ?

Will brining make a difference to these small pieces in reducing the problem of overcooking or quickening the cooking time ?

I'll definitely use a water pan. Is it best to leave some water inside or leave it empty ?

thanks
richard
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Richard K Wong:
I just bought a Weber Performer. I've marinated about 10 pounds of chicken thighs and I'm going to give it a test drive tonight

From reading some Weber recipe books, the suggestion is for indirect heat with two charcoal holders with 25 pieces inside in between a water pan, then sear for 5 min and cook for 30-40 and test for doneness if the thighs are firm and no juices run

I read somewhere that the Performer runs hot and you don't need as much charcoal. Should I just go with one holder or two of 25 ?

Does it in fact run hotter then cool quite drastically and constant topping up after the hour ?
i.e my WSM with one chimney lit and a quarter unlit gives me around 225-250 for a good 4-5 hours i.e perfect for ribs, whereas I'm hearing that you need to replenish about 8 pieces to each holder per hour with the Performer

Are thigh pieces too thin to really get an accurate temperature reading compared to checking thigh temp on a whole chicken ?

Will brining make a difference to these small pieces in reducing the problem of overcooking or quickening the cooking time ?

I'll definitely use a water pan. Is it best to leave some water inside or leave it empty ?

thanks
richard </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I don't know that the performer runs hot. I've only cooked on mine a handful of times, but I've never experienced or heard of that.

I'd light a full chimney and bank the coals to one side. Give the pieces a few minutes per side to sear over the hot fire, then move to the other side and finish indirect to temp. I don't use the charcoal rails often, just push the coals around with a poker.

I think thighs are best around 175, others may like them less done. You can definitely take the temp of a thigh.

Brining poultry always helps keep the meat moist in the event you overcook it slightly. I'd recommend it, but probably too late since you've stated it's in a marinade right now.

No water is needed, nor is a pan unless you're worried about keeping the performer clean.
 
Just curious. How many thighs are in 10 lbs? The method you describe is the method on Weber's site with Jamie P. Weber recommends grilling thighs at about 350-375*that way I believe which is about what I get at the start in my kettle from about 50 briqs, 25 in each basket, more or less if I use that method. IMO, a water pan is not needed. Besides, the few times I used one some years ago, I dropped it inside the grill. I agree with Pat. Go with a chimney and IMO dump the coals when about half are lit up. Then adjust your temp as you desire with the vents. Also JMO, but thighs are fatty enough and come out nice and juicy that I feel brining doesn't improve them that much. (Needless to say, others will disagree)
 
I agree w/Dave...however, you might place foil on the vacant part of the charcoal grate, to keep you're one-touch gizmo from getting gunked up...
icon_wink.gif
 
Great. Many thanks for all the responses. I think it was James P's book. That book seems to talk a lot about indirect high and medium heat and I wanted to get a better idea of what that really meant if I used the charcoal holders.

I think for the first go around, I'll just try with the holders on each side. I'll try with a full chimney next time on my second batch

I'll check for 175. That's a lot more accurate than 'until firm or juices no longer run'

Thanks again. Definitely looking forward to experimenting with this
 
Richard -

I agree with everything Pat M. said, but would add that with a full chimney of lit, your Performer is going to run well over 450 degrees for a while IF you leave the bottom and top vents wide open.

You'll probably want to cut the bottom vents down to about 25 - 50% to get your Performer temps to settle down at the 325 - 375 where you probably will want to cook those fabulous thighs.

Pat
 
Thighs turned out well, but I had problems with temperature control initially. I did try 2 holders each side with 25 bricks. It held at 320 for about 15 min then dropped quite drastically to around 250. All 4 vents were left open. I added 8 more bricks on each side. It still took a while to jump back up, so I added a few more. Finally it started moving back to 350-375. 50 bricks looks like 2/3 o f a chimney, so next time round I'll try a full chimney and use the vents to drop it down
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top