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Help on a pretty simple cook

Essex County
Essex County Posts: 991
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
I had great success last week cooking chicken thighs direct on a raised grid at 280. But that was only 8 thighs. Yesterday, I tried to do 20 thighs and skipped the raised grid. They were rubbed with DP Tsunami Spin. The 20 thighs pretty much covered the main grid. I kept the temp pretty stable at 280, flipped every 20 minutes or so, and took them off after about an hour and a half. They were good but not special. There was a good deal of smoke from the rendered fat and I think this messed up the flavor.[p]Is it possible to do a large number of chicken pieces direct and have good results or should I just go indirect next time?[p]Oh yeah, my wife made a fruit crumble that went on after the chicken. I put the platesetter in and brought the temp up to 350. Thought I'd burned off all the chicken fat but there it was in the flavor of dessert! Not my best effort.[p]Paul

Comments

  • Essex County, My experience has been similar to yours. I cooked a couple of whole beer-can chickens direct that produced a lot of drippings. The drippings burned and smoked the whole time and I felt like it affected the taste. On the other hand, I've cooked a dozen wings on a raised without any problems. My conclusion is that if I plan to cook a lot of thighs or checken quarters, etc., that will produce a lot of drippings, I will cook indirect.

  • fishlessman
    fishlessman Posts: 32,665
    787b1c8b.jpg
    <p />Essex County,
    i think the trick is maximum distance between the lump and the meat. no more than this much lump (about 2/3 of this is better), and an even higher grill than i have here. i used what i had at camp, at home it would of been higher. this was 16, 4 more and there wouldnt be a good spacing, and i go light on the smoking wood. another thing that helps is controlling temps from the bottom and not from the top, at 285, my egg only has a quarter inch opening at the bottom and the daisy slide is mostly open with the holes open too, would probably be better not to have the top on at all. what internal temp did you take them off at, i let it creep up into the low 200's and take them off
    664afb8e.jpg[p]e678e6f1.jpg

    fukahwee maine

    you can lead a fish to water but you can not make him drink it
  • fishlessman,
    Good thoughts. I did load it with lump, probably too much. And the 20 thighs really covered the grill. I actually stacked four or five around the edges and rotated them into the mix until everything had shrunken down. I thought about using the raised grid too but decided to keep it simple. Maybe I could have put some fire bricks on the fire ring to lift the main grid a couple more inches. I didn't check the temp on the meat. Just cut one to see if it was done and it was. The texture of the meat was fine, it was the flavor. Just thought of another variable. These thighs were the supermarket brand while the ones I did last week were Spring Mountain (I think), a Bell and Evans competitor.[p]As for taking the top off and controlling the temp through the bottom, I could do that but what's the advantage? Do you get the acrid smoke out of the dome more quickly?[p]Paul

  • fishlessman
    fishlessman Posts: 32,665
    Essex County,
    maybe less smoke buildup under the dome, and maybe less moisture that would make that acrid smoke stick. not really sure. used to see posts about this years ago, but nobody really mentions going topless with the daisy anymore.

    fukahwee maine

    you can lead a fish to water but you can not make him drink it
  • jake42
    jake42 Posts: 932
    rack2.jpg
    <p />Essex County,
    You can fit two of these racks on a large for 28 wings.
    no turning. Just bring the Egg up to 350 and get great results

  • PETE
    PETE Posts: 44
    jake42,
    Where did you find the rack?[p]Rob