Thats what I was hoping for too on the kettle - a tool to maximize the (useable) heat out of the minimum amount of coals. I'm seeing what I estimate to be ~150-200 temp difference between the up/down usage of my bowl -- hard to say since the thermo is pegged past the numbers so I just have to guess and compensate for range shrinkage at the high end of the scale.
I'm finding it pretty amusing that over here I'm getting the advise to 'run it wide open as hot as it will get' while on the gun forum smoker thread people are saying 'why the hell are you cooking chicken at HELLFIRE temps?'..... I know the right answer is in the middle somewhere. I'm convincing myself that for what I'm doing that 600-650 is the right range for what I'm expecting as an outcome. Much hotter than that and the skin shrinks/splits/pulls back and there is a real risk of overcooking the meat --- much lower than that and the skin doesn't render to the point I'm after in a reasonable time frame. So now I am at the point of figuring out whether I run it big side up that holds temp just right wide open but needs more coals for the cook or do I run it small side up and throttle it back to temp (hopefully) using less coal and leaving the ability to open the vents as the heat dies down..... I haven't tried this one yet, but is next on the list..
I only 'need' to cook 5-6 thighs for myself most of the time but want to be able to do a whole flat at once when needed. Coming off the confidence of the last cook I decided I was going to try a whole flat! I set it up the same way as before (so I thought - more later) and let it rip!
It was holding a nice 600-650 as I expected.....
~30 minutes in -- NICE color and the skin rendering nicely.....
It was right after I took that pic that the temp started to dip...... dammit....... It was dropping down to the 450-500 range and looking like it was going to continue dropping. I was torn between letting it run out or adding more coal to boost the temps back up. I chose the hard route and added 5-7 more coals thinking that would do it ---- yeah - you all know what it took to add coals to the bowl..... Waited for the white smoke from the fresh coals to burn off and back cooking.... After ~ 10 minutes it was obvious it wasn't going to bring the temps up that much --- and I was kicking myself for NOT flipping the bowl over to hopefully generate more heat..... So I decided to pull the grate AGAIN to flip the bowl and added some more used coal to the bowl --- I figured the used coal wouldn't smoke nearly as bad since it had already been burned off. OK - temps back up - but running a bit hotter than I wanted ~700ish. It was at that point that I realized that I had omitted the 'big chunk of plum wood' in the bowl that I had in the previous cook --- that chunk was probably worth 10-15 coals worth of heat and why I didn't have this problem before..... so mental note made. The reason I didn't put the wood chunk in the bowl is because I realized on the last cook that the chunk was burning waaaay too clean and not really producing much smoke (pellet burner syndrome) --- thats why I put the (somewhat smaller) chunk on the grate which did produce smoke the whole time.
I finished them out - didn't quite get the crispyness that I wanted before glazing, but I didn't want to over cook them either.
Notice that the skins are still nicely attached and not peeling off ---- thats what I tend to see when cooking at higher temps.
I was upset with myself because I had missed my target for this cook --- but they still ended up being TASTY as hell! I split the cook with my neighbor --- who said 'I don't need 5or6 thighs' to begin with but I gave him 5 anyways --- he agreed that those were some of the tastiest thighs I've ever done! He said that they were perfectly seasoned with a nice bite, but surprisingly lacking much smoke flavor. I forced him to take 5 so that he could experience the leftover/reheats --- THATS when the flavors really come out! I ran into him yesterday and he told me 'Damn --- you were right - I could REALLY taste the smoke after sitting in the fridge overnight'. I was really happy to let him get the taste of the reheats - to me, its usually BETTER 'flavor' than fresh off the grill altho it tends to lack the right texture.... (unless you reheat them correctly - micro + toaster oven gets it back to fresh pretty closely).
Another data point - mental notes taken - adjustments will be made on the next cook. You don't learn from success..... you gain knowledge from problems, mistakes and failures. Thank god even my mistakes and failures still end up being tasty! A good friend of mine -- who is a bbq junkie -- once commented that 'you can have nicely smoked chicken or crispy skin -- I've NEVER had both' ----- I've been on a quest to have BOTH.
I (and my neighbor) can't wait for chicken to go on sale again!
