Rodney Scott’s chicken


 
D

D Fillman

New member
Hey everyone,
i was wondering if any of you have tried to cook chicken like Rodney Scott ( as he suggest in his book)?
He says he cooks direct over lump charcoal at 225-250 for roughly 2-2.5 hours. He said you spread the coals out over 3/4 of the area to leave a cool area in case of flare ups.
My question, is how do you get a direct fire to burn at 250 for a couple of hours?? I put a full chimney of coals and couldn’t get it under 500. So do you think you would use a handful and just keep adding?
I think direct is the way to go, but can’t figure out how to keep it low without constantly adding coals to keep it going
thanks!
 
adjust your vents, your temp control is done with your vents. close the upper to about 1/8 of the whole is open and the lower one is at the first marking. that should be about right

And Welcome
 
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ScottRogers said:
Cooked these for 8 hours 220-250


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Thanks Scott! I’ve looked at how all the third world folks cook chicken and it is always direct and over something like lump charcoal. Everyone just seems to cook at low direct temps and their chicken looks better than most of the developed world.
I think I’m going to try way less charcoal with a little oak and keep the vents pretty tight
thanks for the input!
 
I dunno, looks like an easy way to get in trouble or serve a slightly pink bird.
I have a couple of small tailgate bbq‘s that I’ve tried that on and it takes a lot of attention for a so so product.
For chicken I mostly cook indirect then sear.
 
D Fillman said:
Hey everyone,
i was wondering if any of you have tried to cook chicken like Rodney Scott ( as he suggest in his book)?
He says he cooks direct over lump charcoal at 225-250 for roughly 2-2.5 hours. He said you spread the coals out over 3/4 of the area to leave a cool area in case of flare ups.
My question, is how do you get a direct fire to burn at 250 for a couple of hours?? I put a full chimney of coals and couldn’t get it under 500. So do you think you would use a handful and just keep adding?
I think direct is the way to go, but can’t figure out how to keep it low without constantly adding coals to keep it going
thanks!
Click to expand...
So fwiw, here's how I do it on the Performer. My wsm is much better at it, but this method does work. I use a slow 'n sear for this, but it's not necessary.

Light a small amount of charcoal in the chimney. If I'm using Kingsford, that's about 10-14 briquettes. If I'm using lump, like Jealous Devil Chunks, it's about one large handful.

Add unlit charcoal/lump in the slow 'n sear, leaving room to add the lit fuel. Once added, it acts like a fuse. Imo, the wsm handles it better, but this process works well for me. I did a 3.5lb chuck roast yesterday that cooked over indirect for about 3 hrs (Italian beef). After 3 hours, I still had a fair amount of unlit lump left in the slow 'n sear.

Temps never exceeded 300, nor dipped below 225. Stayed around 250° the whole time.

Hope that helps!
 
Thanks to all for your input on Rodney Scott’s direct cooking for chicken; I tried an experiment:
I got my WSM and put in half a chimney of lump w/ a couple chunks of oak. I waited till the temp got down to about 260 then put the chicken on the lower rack, lid on, vents about 1/2. The temp did fluctuate between 240-260 and I had to add some unlit lump and constantly adjust the vents - kind of a pain.
I kept it bone side down for an hour, sauced, then flipped to skin side down for 1/2 hour. Even though I added unlit lump, it surprisingly wasn’t acrid. Since I dry brined it for 2 days, it wasn’t dry - in fact, it was pretty juicy with a deep smoke flavor. Though it still not there, I was pretty surprised at how good it was.
Just wish I could figure out a way to put the lump in, and get it down to temp quickly and maintain 250-275 for the hour and a half.
Thanks again to all for your advice!
 
Once you get it figured out, it’s not too tough, what are you cooking on?
If it’s a WSM should not be any real trick, on a kettle, it’s just a learning curve. Small fire to run 225 shouldn’t be that hard to figure out, you’ll get that dialed in. Welcome aboard!
 
Lynn Dollar said:
I would guess, and its just a guess, that Rodney Scott uses a burn barrel and adds coals during the cook.
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Hey Lynn, you are so right- Rodney does exactly that. You got me thinking: I could put an oak split on my little Home Depot fire pit, and do the same thing, just add coals as I go and maintaine temps easier.
Thanks again for reminding me of Rodneys method that I should have thought of in the first place!
 
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