I was cooking chicken but I should've had steak!

Pug · March 2001

Well friends, Saturday I learned a good lesson about my egg. It is not easy to start with a high temp. cook and then lower the temp down to cook something else. I decided to cook some bake potatoes on the egg and did so for about an hour. I then shut the egg down for a while and let it cool to about 325 degrees so I could cook some chicken direct. I found though that every time I opened the lid to turn the chicken my coals would heat up to over 500. About the time I charred my chicken, I was wishing for steak. Those coals were taunting me and laughing at me for going with cheap chicken.[p]In the spirit of "when life gives you lemons make lemonade" I salvaged a good bit of chicken, which actually had a good taste, and made chicken salad.[p]Steve

Char-Woody · March 2001

I am confused a bit on this one..How high temperature and how long did your bake the potato? If grilling your chicken direct, you should have been able to do the potato easily at the same time at the same temperatures.
Fill me in a bit..
C~W[p]

Pug · March 2001

Char-Woody,
I cooked the potatoes at about 450-500 degrees indirect wrapped up in foil for about 45 minutes. I had six very large potatoes so they were about done when I pulled them. I was hoping to cook my leg quarters (which I had prepared sort of like Gfw's hot wings) at 325-350 degrees and turn them every 10 minutes until done. The temp seemed to rise quickly when I opened the lid even though the bottom vent was almost shut. Were the planets in bad alignment or did I do something wrong?[p]Steve

Char-Woody · March 2001

Pug, I normally cook my spud along with the meal and usually around 350F. YOu can cook the spuds indirect and no foil. I usually do my chicken parts and whole birds indirect.
Here is a tip or trick with potato's that I do and it works very well in the BGE. I kick start em internally in the microwave for a 1.5 to 2 minutes. Generally I will use either a peanut oil or olive oil exterior coating, and a dash of garlic salt or other seasoning. You can finish roast the potato and not notice the difference. This way the potato has a pre heated interior and it finish cooks nicely on the BGE for the brick oven flavor.
Since we are cooking on different planes here, I could suggest the insertion of cold firebrick set up and a second grill to bring down your internal high temperatures. I can change my internal heat on the BGE almost instantly to the levels I need for a normal cook...350 to 400 F..Even a higher temperature without brick will adjust simply from the cold meats themselves..Just damper down all vents to minimum openings. Try this sometime...After taking your steaks off, put on your daisy wheel, shut daisy and lower vent to a crack, and watch the dome temperature slide right down to 400 or below over the next 15 minutes. Raw meat inserted at the same time would bring it down even quicker, and never hurt the meat as it has no real time to cook in the interim...I have seared Prime rib...with high heat, put on the daisy..ajdust lower vent,,and let the heat slide down to my 350 F range buy itself.
My opinion only of course..Good luck to you...
Char-Woody

Pug · March 2001

Char-Woody,
Thanks for your thoughts. The cold fire bricks and second grill is something I should have thought about. I guess the thing that surprised me is how quickly and how hot the coals got when the lid was opened to turn the chicken. [p]Steve

Char-Woody · March 2001

Pug, that is one of the problems in repeated openings of the dome..you get a very erradic fire due to no air control to the flame. No oxygen control. you have a huge flow of air to the already hot fire..and it takes off. It should calm right back down as soon as you close the dome and reduce air to the fire.
I use my solid top to regulate my high temp runs so they stay within the 700 range (cap on, cap off) Plenty high for searing.
C~W[p]

Char-Woody · March 2001

Pug, that is one of the problems in repeated openings of the dome..you get a very erradic fire due to no air control to the flame. No oxygen control. you have a huge flow of air to the already hot fire..and it takes off. It should calm right back down as soon as you close the dome and reduce air to the fire.
I use my solid top to regulate my high temp runs so they stay within the 700 range (cap on, cap off) Plenty high for searing.
C~W[p]

Pug · March 2001

Char-Woody,
Is "cap on-cap off" similar to "wax on-wax off" as stated in the critically acclaimed feature film- Karate Kid? :-)[p]Have a good day C~W,[p]Steve

Char-Woody · March 2001

Pug, thas where I derived it from :-)
Good movie..family fare.
If you were able to watch the hot charcoal glow inside you would see it brighten and darken as you adjusted the output air. No real chemistry involved..just airflow.
C~W

Spin · March 2001

Pug,[p]The Egg presents two problems when attempting to cook at a considerably lower temp immediately after a long high temp cook. The first problem is that the Egg itself is now thoroughly heated to the higher temp and needs to cool. Until the Egg cools to the lower cooking temp, the Egg itself (not the fire) controls the cooking temp, thus leading to starving the fire in the attempt to lower the cooking temperature by the vents.[p]There are several ways to work with this problem. The first is to avoid this situation by either using two Eggs for the two cooks, or adjusting the time and temp of either/both cooks on a single Egg. On this cook, the baked potatoes could have been cooked at 350°F for a longer time, adding the chicken cook later with a slight temp adjustment.[p]Of course we do tend to like the way we cook and the Egg should be able to accomodate us (my credo until proven otherwise!), thus the second problem. After a high temp cook, a lot of charcoal has the ability to quickly reignite - as opposed to a lower temp cook where only enough coals are lit to produce the heat needed. The application of air (oxygen) will produce a larger reaction from the fire. To help control this reaction, you need a cool Egg and/or a way to help cool the Egg as you cook.[p]Char-Woody suggested a good way to help cool the Egg. You can even use a pot full of ice to do the job. To help control the temperture rise on Egg openings, close the bottom vent to just a crack and remove the top vent completely (control cooking temp with the bottom vent only). Each time you open the Egg, a lot of air will flow through the dome and help remove the heat caused by the fire flare. Of course, minimizing the time the dome is open is the best control. Several shorter openings, with a pause between, are better than one long one.[p]Hope this helps,
Spin

I was cooking chicken but I should've had steak!

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