Minion Method on a non-bullet?


 
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Wesley S

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I haven't taken the WSM step yet but we do own a Chargriller brand charcoal grill. Our particular grill does not have the smoke box on the side but is the basic barrel shaped grill and I must say the food tastes wonderful coming off those cast iron grates. First time cast iron user here.
Here is a pic of the grill for those curious
http://www.chargriller.com/superpro.html

My question is I want to "try" to smoke some chicken sometime soon and wanted to get some tips and pointers for my situation. I actually want to try the Minion Method if it's possible in my scenario since I'll basically have to use an indirect cooking method.

What I'm thinking of trying is chicken breast halves with the bone and some kind of BBQ sauce or rub to try on the meat. I'll get into cooking times a bit later but first I'd like to ask if this method is "workable" in my situation. I've pretty much mastered keeping the grill at 225-250 degrees while so to speak grilling directly over the coals.
 
It shouldn't be much different than doing it in a kettle. There are plenty of posts about smoking in a kettle. Just do a search and you should have a lot of tips. Also, most of the information here is applicable for a grill as well as the WSM.

Basically, you will pile unlit coals (about a Weber chimney full) on one side of the grill and put about 15 lit coals on top. Put a water pan on top of that and you're good to do. Don't forget some smoking wood and a drip pan, but that should do it. The thing you may have to figure out are your vent settings to keep the temperature down.
 
A former co-worker has the big Weber kettle and he uses the "C" method he found on the web - arranges his charcoal in a "C" pattern around the outer edge, about 4~5 coals thick, then adds a few burning coals to one end and it burns around the circle. Claimed it gave him enough burn time to do chicken or a rack of ribs or a small brisket.
 
Some of those types of grills have holes in the side of the lid or slots for rotisory setups.
If yours does, this could be a place for more air to be drafted into the grill(other than intake dampers). This could cause unlit coals to lite more readilly giving you a mass of glowing coals instead of the slow even burn that you want.
IF you have these holes or slots I would use foil or somthing to seal them up.I cant really tell from the picture in the link.
Jim
 
Thanks guys.

Jon, I didn't realize that the water pan actually went on top of the coals and the meat went above that. I was thinking that the water went under the meat on the other side of the coals. Then again I'm a noob. Maybe I need to check a little more around the site.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Wesley S:
[qb] Thanks guys.

Jon, I didn't realize that the water pan actually went on top of the coals and the meat went above that. I was thinking that the water went under the meat on the other side of the coals. Then again I'm a noob. Maybe I need to check a little more around the site. [/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>No the water pan goes above the coals on the cooking rack. Then the drip pan goes next to the coals on the charcoal rack. The food goes above the drip pan on the cooking rack (next to the water pan). The reason for the water pan above the coals on the cooking rack is to act as a heatsink to soak up some of the heat. Trust me. This helps a GREAT deal in keeping a lower temp on your grill for cooking low and slow.
I use sand in my pan instead of water though. Then you don't have to worry about rifilling on a long cook. But if your just doing chicken it wont take that long to cook so water should be fine I think.

I've smoked several times on my weber kettle grill. I keep the vents closed almost the whole cook except at the very beginning when I'm getting the coals ready. I also use the minion method. I was able to get 12 hours on one load of coals without the need to add any.

It's a lot of fun you should try it!
 
Thanks.

Even though I'm not using the WSM should I still start out with roughly 15 hot coals to pour on the pile of unlit coals for the MM?

Also what exactly does the drip pan do other than catch the drippings?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Wesley S:
[qb] Thanks.

Even though I'm not using the WSM should I still start out with roughly 15 hot coals to pour on the pile of unlit coals for the MM?

Also what exactly does the drip pan do other than catch the drippings? [/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I would still use about 15 hot coals on top of the unlit coals. And the drip pan's only purpose is to catch drippings. Some people use the drip pan as a water pan as well instead of putting one above the coals on the cooking grate. I've done this many times when cooking poultry. But trust me the water pan above the coals helps regulate the temps much better then having it next to the coals.
 
Cool now I just need a good recipe for chicken breast halves with the bone. I may give this a whirl this weekend. I'm going to go out tonight to see if I can find some wood chunks. We live in a small rural area but we do have a Lowes. I don't know if they sell chunks there but I'm going to get me a weber starter and look for the chunks while I'm out.

Also about how long should I expect to smoke chicken breast halves?

If you guys have a good place to order chunks online please let me know.
 
Hay Wesley,
Can't help with the chicken breasts. I always grill mine over high heat. However this is where I get my wood chunks. King Smoke Lowes or wally world will carry hickory and muskeet. /infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif Not particularly fond of muskeet. Kind a like muskrat /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif Anyway I get my apple wood from there. Price aint too bad. Usually have the wood within a week after order. Hope this helps.
 
Well Lowes did have Weber Hickory and Mesquite chunks so I got a bag of Hickory. They did not have the Weber Chimney starter so I'll order that from Amazon. I have a $10GC to burn. /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif


$9.27 total after shipping. /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif That was the perfect item to get with a GC I'd probably never use for anything else.

Also does it really matter what brand of wood chunks you use? I mean I grabber the Weber brand over the others thinking I really can't go wrong with Weber.
 
Well I don't really think the brand will matter all that much. But then again I've never purchased wood before. I get all my wood from my dads house. The tree's always seem to need triming there. I just got about 3 full garbage bags full of wood on saturday. One is apple wood, one is crabapple wood, the other is maple. I still have more to cut up there though. Plus there's plenty more tree's to trim. I can get a ton of maple yet, as well as somemore apple and pare wood to. And he's got a small cherry tree he said I could cut down if I really want to. I'm thinking about doing it.
 
You may also want to look at Sports Authority if you have 'em. They were having a close-out on all their BBQ stuff and had boxes of Brinkman brand hickory for $2.50. If you can't find it in the backyard, it was a pretty good deal. It also is a good starter size of wood. I've done three smokes and still have half left. The box lists as having .22 cubic feet of wood and its dimensions are about 8in. x 11in. x 3in. (not very big).
 
Crabapple eh?

We have two crabapple trees in our front yard. What does crabapple go good with? We also have a pear tree in the back.
 
I can't tell the difference between crabapple and apple. They taste the same to me. Pear is similiar to apple I think Just a little less sweet tasting.

You can use either one for Poultry, pork, fish, I even used apple on a chuck roast I smoked. It tasted good. I don't know but I have a hard time tasting a real big difference between all the woods. Just seems to me some are just much stronger tasting then some. All your fruit woods for the most part will be a little on the milder side.
 
How much of a difference is green wood compared to seasoned wood? My crabapple trees are still green and I'm curious to if the taste is milder since it's still green?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Wesley S:
[qb] Well Lowes did have Weber Hickory and Mesquite chunks so I got a bag of Hickory. They did not have the Weber Chimney starter so I'll order that from Amazon. I have a $10GC to burn. /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif


$I mean I grabber the Weber brand over the others thinking I really can't go wrong with Weber. [/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Sears and Target in metro Atlatna both stock the Weber Starter. They may be a possible resource in your area.

Vic
 
Thanks Vic,

The closest Sears and Target to us is about 60 miles. Thank goodness UPS delivers /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif Chimney will be here next Wed.
 
I use green wood all the time. It's works fine for me. I've heard of guys using green wood in compititions and winning. I read before that certain woods they don't recommend using green. But I can't remember which one/s. I know it's none of the kinds of wood that I use so I never worried about it.
 
Dennis,

When you use the green wood are the original pieces samll limbs or do you actually split larger logs? Thanks /infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif
 
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