Roadside Chicken


 
G'day folks,

I first cooked the RSC on my new Performer about 3 yrs ago now when I first seen it on here (it was only a couple of pages long then
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)and I must say, it's still one of my favourites to grill.
I've yet to try a batch on my WSM though but want to very soon, I've just one question about using the 18.5 WSM on high heat,obviously not using water in the pan, so my question would be, If you place some chicken on the lower grate closer to the empty water pan, would the radiated heat from the pan cook the bottom chicken a lot faster due to radiated heat? If so, how does one get around this?
I've only tried to use an empty pan once with mixed results so I'm a bit wary.

Cheers

Davo
 
In reviewing the recipe it looked familiar to me for some reason. I then realized many people have used Wish-Bone Italian Dressing as a marinade and basting sauce for chicken for as long as I can remember.

Here are the listed http://www.wish-bone.com/WB_Products_Info.pdf ingredients for Wish Bone:

WATER
SOYBEAN AND CANOLA OILS
DISTILLED VINEGAR
SUGAR
SALT
GARLIC*
ONION*
RED BELL PEPPERS*

plus other things you find in commercially bottled stuff.

MALTODEXTRIN (CORN)
XANTHAN GUM
SPICES
AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT
CALCIUM DISODIUM EDTA (USED TO PROTECT QUALITY)
NATURAL FLAVOR
LEMON JUICE CONCENTRATE
CARAMEL COLOR,
ANNATTO EXTRACT (for color)

*****************

It appears the main difference is the Worcestershire sauce and celery salt. The ingredient proportions are not listed, but they do appear to be almost identical. A google search for Italian dressing and grilled chicken produced 3,470,000 results.
 
Davo,
When I do RSC on the smoker I leave out the water pan entirely and cook on the top grate. If I'm in a hurry, the lower.
Works well for me.
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Davo - if you look way up thread you might see some of my posts/photos using the WSM 18.5.

Stack up the ring and add a full chimney of lit. I am using lump typically. It's great because you don't have any significant ash build up over time and the high heat is more sustainable.

The pan is totally out for the duration. This makes the WSM into a sort of Carolina Smoker or UDS if you will. High distance from the heat source, but allows the fats to drop onto the fire for a natural smoke, etc.

I've cooked two racks loaded many times. The additional height allows you to control flare ups easier, and also the flares are usually a great distance from the food grate.

Just regulate those by placing the lid on/off, etc. Leave the fuel door off or prop it open, turn it upside down, etc. I usually just leave it off so that I can maintain high temps throughout. With the fuel door off it also allows you to add more fuel readily if you need to.

But - the advantage is that this method allows you to control charring, bring things up slower but still cooking over high heat.

You can see by my sig that I have both Performer and WSM. I pretty much always do the roadside chicken on the WSM for the reasons mentioned above. Just much more controllable IMHO.

Good luck.
 
Made this for the first time tonight. Fiancé loved it. Didn't have time to marinade it but will do that for sure next time. How long will the mix keep for if I put the unused portion in the refrigerator?
 
James it will hold just fine for a long time. All that acid yuo know. I dont know an exact number..But i bet a few month without problem.
 
Thanks! U used the rest of the batch today on some breasts. Had time to marinate for about thirty minutes. Made all the difference in the world! So much better that way.
 
Originally posted by r benash:
Davo - if you look way up thread you might see some of my posts/photos using the WSM 18.5.

Stack up the ring and add a full chimney of lit. I am using lump typically. It's great because you don't have any significant ash build up over time and the high heat is more sustainable.

The pan is totally out for the duration. This makes the WSM into a sort of Carolina Smoker or UDS if you will. High distance from the heat source, but allows the fats to drop onto the fire for a natural smoke, etc.

I've cooked two racks loaded many times. The additional height allows you to control flare ups easier, and also the flares are usually a great distance from the food grate.

Just regulate those by placing the lid on/off, etc. Leave the fuel door off or prop it open, turn it upside down, etc. I usually just leave it off so that I can maintain high temps throughout. With the fuel door off it also allows you to add more fuel readily if you need to.

But - the advantage is that this method allows you to control charring, bring things up slower but still cooking over high heat.

You can see by my sig that I have both Performer and WSM. I pretty much always do the roadside chicken on the WSM for the reasons mentioned above. Just much more controllable IMHO.

Good luck.
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Thanks for that info Ray, next time I do RSC, this is definately the way I will go with it.
I have always did it on my Performer but now it's time to give my WSM a whirl...Thanks again mate
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Cheers

Davo
 
I'm going to try this on Saturday on my 18.5" WSM. Tried to read through as much of this very long topic as possible, but still have a question.

Saw that many that have done this on the WSM have removed the door to keep the heat high but left the lid on. I understand that giving the charcoal access to oxygen by removing the door heats it up. My question is can you just leave the door on and keep the lid off and have a similar effect?
 
Originally posted by Joey_B:
I'm going to try this on Saturday on my 18.5" WSM. Tried to read through as much of this very long topic as possible, but still have a question.

Saw that many that have done this on the WSM have removed the door to keep the heat high but left the lid on. I understand that giving the charcoal access to oxygen by removing the door heats it up. My question is can you just leave the door on and keep the lid off and have a similar effect?
Click to expand...

Joey, many just prop the door open or crack the lid for higher heat, also don't use water just foil in the water pan for higher heat. I make this recipe on the kettle regularly and its done direct heat saucing and turning every 5 minutes or so. you should be able to remove your water pan all together and that will give you much higher and direct heat. good luck and this Chicken recipe is fantastic!
 
Originally posted by Todd H.:
Joey, many just prop the door open or crack the lid for higher heat, also don't use water just foil in the water pan for higher heat. I make this recipe on the kettle regularly and its done direct heat saucing and turning every 5 minutes or so. you should be able to remove your water pan all together and that will give you much higher and direct heat. good luck and this Chicken recipe is fantastic!
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Thanks Todd. I'm planning to take the water pan out completely. I'm not going to use any wood chunks (discouraged by prior posts where smoked wood took away from this recipe). So I'm hoping the drippings from the chicken/sauce hitting the charcoal will create some extra flavor. Will be a new experience using the WSM for direct high heat. I'll crack the door and the lid and see if that produces enough heat. Saucing every 5 minutes should leave the lid open a good amount anyways.
 
I used all of the ingredients to the tee from the first post in this thread and used my 22.5 WSM..

Mom in law is in town, so I wanted to give this a try after rave reviews..

First I quartered 2 whole chickens.. Washed and rinsed..

Trimmed separated white with dark and marinated for 3 hrs. Left skin on

put 1 chimney of unlit coals into the ring
Lit 1 chimney of coals and spread over the unlit ones.

took the water pan out
took the top rack out

Placed chicken on the middle rack

Cracked the Door
all vents open
closed the lid

I turned the chicken and squirted with a fresh batch of marinade every 8 mins using a condiment squirt type of thing.

after the thighs were 175 and the white meat was 155 I took off and let rest for 10 mins..(cooked for about 50 mins total)

Result- The best chicken I have had hands down.

This will be my goto cook to impress guests from today forward.

Thank you for the recipe!!

IMO no smoke is needed. Smoke will overpower the flavor of the chicken.. The smoke created by the drippings falling onto the hot coals is more than enough smoke flavor..
 
I'd say that day.

I like to go 6 hours or so with this. Too long could make the chicken mushy with the amount of acid present in the marinade. I think the longest I've gone is 8 hours.
 
Making this today for the first time on my new 22.5 OTG. Based on 29 pages of great comments I'm hoping this will be fantastic.
 
Originally posted by Mike Gray:
Making this today for the first time on my new 22.5 OTG. Based on 29 pages of great comments I'm hoping this will be fantastic.
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Mike, the OP of this recipe must be quite the grillmeister. I've tried the split chickens over lump in the kettle with all that basting, and it's not the easiest task, I can guarantee. Split chicken breasts are much more manageable on the kettle with this method, but your 22.5" WSM without the pan would be a much better option for split or butterflied chickens if cooked Cornell or Roadside style. Either way though, good luck with it.
 
Originally posted by Dave Russell:


Mike, the OP of this recipe must be quite the grillmeister. I've tried the split chickens over lump in the kettle with all that basting, and it's not the easiest task, I can guarantee. Split chicken breasts are much more manageable on the kettle with this method, but your 22.5" WSM without the pan would be a much better option for split or butterflied chickens if cooked Cornell or Roadside style. Either way though, good luck with it.
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I am trying this with thighs and legs so I hope it's not too difficult. There does look like a lot of basting, but go big or go home, right!?!

I have done wings on the WSM with no water pan and they turned out okay, but maybe a bit over smoked (used one large chunk of apple wood). Since this is my first try with my new OTG I was hoping it wouldn't be too difficult.

Any idea if a spray bottle is better than a mop for the basting?
 
Drumsticks and thighs aren't that much trouble. Still be sure to keep your fire under control and shutting the vents when the lid is off is not a bad idea. Just don't forget to reopen them.

I prefer using a soy sauce or worster s. bottle with the thingy in the top that helps control the rate of pour. Works great in putting the baste right where it needs to be and not as much wasted and spilled onto the coals.

Good luck with it!
 
Done! It was fantastic! No real flare up issues and overall it was a very easy cook. Did some on the gasser since I had so much, but the ones done on the OTG were better. Will post a pic or two in the photo section.
 
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