Whole Chickens on the Large

Marine

Just got the Large Egg and thinking about cooking some Whole chickens this weekend. It says you can fit 6 on the large. Would like to get some feedback on rub how long and the temp. i have a platesetter I bought but haven't used yet. I have only cooked on the egg once and it was steak. any help would be great!!!

PhilsGrill

One chicken or six, same amount of time. About 1.5 hours at 350-400 indirect. 160 breast, 180 at the thighs.

Mud Pig

I did two whole chickens on my XL this past weekend. I did them high in the dome, indirect, 250 degrees for 2 1/2 hours. Turned out great. I used Hickory wood.

Same finish temp as always with chicken, 160 in the breast, 180 in the thigh.

Little Steven

Marine,

I tried this last week and it worked out very well.
You could easily do six.
http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=899828&catid=1

Steve

Marine

sounds great. I am gonna try it this week. Any suggestions for rubs and/or BBQ sauce? I have a carolina Vinegar sauce I use but I am trying to figure out a decent sweet one and a nice rub.

evenwhenitsraining

When they say you can do 6 chickens, it means 6 chickens that are standing up vertically on a little chicken stands. These stands are easily found most anywhere, like Home Depot, or any BGE store.

I'm a hell of a lot more aggressive than most on this forum with heat when I do chickens. Probably because of my long career in French restaurants. I roast chicken "spatchcock" style over the platesetter at about 450 or so, I roast about an hour until the leg/thigh will easily pull apart from the breast and the chicken is a DEEP and DARK golden brown. It should feel like the legs are about to almost fall off when lifting the chicken from the grill. Others say this overcooks the breast, I say "rubbish". Maybe it's because I roast the chicken skin side up, never flip the bird, and I never open the grill before 50 minutes.

Always prep you chicken by thoroughly drying it with paper towels and don't apply any sauces with sugar in them until the last few minutes of cooking.

Davekatz

evenwhenitsraining wrote:

... I roast chicken "spatchcock" style over the platesetter at about 450 or so...

Sounds tasty - I do mostly spatchcocked birds, but keep playing around with direct raised versus indirect. Do you use a drip pan on the plate setter then? Does the skin come out crispy?

Thanks,

Dave

evenwhenitsraining

Yes, it comes out very crispy. In fact, I judge the "doneness" of my chicken by when the skin is dark and crispy and the leg/thigh will pull away from the body. I don't use a drip pan as I don't find chickens to have so much fat that it interferes with the fire or flavor. Also, I cook the bird skin side up the whole time and never flip the bird. I suppose I should experiment and try for some grill marks.

Other factors that will crisp the skin further include: 1) Thoroughly drying the entire chicken with paper towels. Water equals steam. Steam equals less carmelization of the natural sugars in the skin. 2) I also brush the bird with EVOO after drying it and before seasoning. This aids in helping the salt stick to the skin of the chicken which in turn dehydrates the skin-a good thing. 3) Generously salt the bird on all sides. I use Kosher salt and liberally rain it down on the bird. You want to actually see a few salt crystals embedded in the finished bird. The salt also aids in drawing water out of the skin of the bird which aids in browning and crisping the skin.