Chicken on the chicken prop

Buckgeis

My wife and I just did our first chicken in our new large BGE using the wire chicken prop. We set it directly on a drip pan. It occurs to me that if we had slightly elevated it with a small round cooling rack, it would have lifted the base of the bird up a bit, allowing heat to rise up the inside the bird. Could it be that this is in fact what you are supposed to do? Thanks for tips.

Nature Boy

Buckgeis,
Yes. The further away the meat is from the deflector, the more air circulation you will get, and the more even your cooking will be. Every time I have had meat that was close to the drip pan, I have had uneven results. 4-6 inches of space is perfect in my opinion. CW is also a big advocate of the "leave plenty of space" rule!![p]Cheers!
NB

Char-Woody

Nature Boy, your on the money! Stands to reason, any part of the cook that the closest to the proximity of the deflector is going to cook differently. To eleviate that you need uniform heat/air movement.
Cheers back..
C~W[p]

Trout Bum

Buckgeis,
I use the plate sitter inverted (legs up). Then put my drip pan (a 12 inch pizza pan covered with foil, easy clean up) on the flat suface between the legs and grate on top of the legs. This gives about a 3 inch air space and makes the grid even with the top of Egg. Works Great!
B D