First cook on the egg

Kenny 13

Last night I managed to do my first cook on the LBGE. Since spatchcocked chicken seems to be somewhat of a traditional first cook, I decided to stick with that tradition. Not only was it my first cook on the egg, but also the frist spatchcocked chicken I've ever cooked and I was not disappointed. The chicken was cooked perfectly, and very juicy. I got a few pics but I can't post them from home right now because of PC problems, but if I manage to get them transferred to a flash drive I'll post them from work tomorrow.

The egg performed fantastic, but I'm definitely gonna have to get used to doing things a little differently for temperature control. I've always said that I learn something from every cook, and this one wasn't different. I managed to maintain my dome temp at 360° for most of the cook, but not knowing what to expect of my first spatchcocked bird I started opening the dome and checking the internal temperature of the meat a little early, and subsequently too often which led to more oxygen in the egg and temps climbing to 420° toward the end of the cook. I've started a journal to document things like this that will help me with future cooks on the egg, but I am loving it already and can't wait to fire it up again

vidalia1

Good job on the first cook. Get a digital remote thermometer. It will be your best friend. Polder is a good brand. Here is just one example.

http://www.polderonline.com/product/125628.html

Also remember the rule: if you are looking the eggs not cooking.

FearlessGrill

Kenny,

Congrats on the successful first cook. One thing to note with chicken on the Egg ... it isn't likely to dry out unless you just forget it on there, so you don't really need to obsess over the internal temp. I generally pull mine when the temp is above 160 and below 170 or so, but if I overcook it a bit, it still comes out great. This saves you from constantly opening the lid, which as you discovered will destabilize your temperature, and may also lead to the bird drying out as you release moisture from the cooking chamber. I know that at the temp I cook whole chicken (usually indirect 375-400), a spatchcocked 5ish lb bird will never be ready any sooner than 75 minutes, so that's the 1st time I check it.

Glad you're enjoying your new Egg.

-John

BayouMark

Welcome to the forum. With the BGE you always want to cook to an internal temp. My birds are pulled at 165 breast 175 thigh. You will learn to ratio of temp vs time vs mass. You are right on for keeping a log. Just try not ot overthink the process and you will be good to go.

Serial Griller

Way to go Kenny.it only gets better! Have fun!

2Fategghead

Good to hear you had a successful first cook. Spatchcock chicken is a wonderful thing. Keep up the good work.

Remote meat probes are a wonderful thing as well. I'm not dissin one model from another but, I have had good results using the high heat probes. I have fried a lot of stock probes. Just be careful and don't fry the thermocouple or you will be crying the blue's. Tim

Kenny 13

vidalia1 wrote:

Good job on the first cook. Get a digital remote thermometer. It will be your best friend. Polder is a good brand. Here is just one example.

http://www.polderonline.com/product/125628.html

Also remember the rule: if you are looking the eggs not cooking.

Yeah, I have an ET-73 but I didn't want to use it on this cook since I was cooking direct and turning the chicken after the first 15 minutes. Just figured on checking with the thermapen but just didn't have a good idea of how long I should have waited before checking. In hindsight it probably would have been a good idea to just insert the probe from the ET-73 after I flipped the chicken. I definitely subscribe to the "if you're looking it's not cooking" theory

Kenny 13

BayouMark wrote:

Welcome to the forum. With the BGE you always want to cook to an internal temp. My birds are pulled at 165 breast 175 thigh. You will learn to ratio of temp vs time vs mass. You are right on for keeping a log. Just try not ot overthink the process and you will be good to go.

Yeah, I always cook to internal temperature. Just didn't know what to expect from my first time with the spatchcocked bird, and first cook on the egg so I started checking a little early.

As far as the log and not overthinking things, I've always liked the idea of just jotting down a few notes on things I liked, things I would have done differently, or new ideas to try to reference for the next time around. I have enough trouble remembering my phone number, much less what I did on a particular cook 2 weeks ago :laugh: