Large BBQ last Saturday night

sdbelt · June 2001

Last Saturday night I managed to stuff 15 half chicken breasts (or 7.5 chickens worth of breast) and 10 ears of corn into my large BGE. This seemed fairly impressive to me, considering my egg wasn't yet 2 weeks old. The 15 breasts filled the BGE rack, and then I used two fire bricks as stilts and put an 18.5" Weber grill on and set the 10 ears to cook on that. I've seen pictures of folks using bolts and washers to accomplish the same thing, but I don't have that jig ready yet.[p]I did the entire cook indirect (using firebricks below) and so it took over 2 hours to cook. I removed the corn (olive oil and salt on de-silked ears, with the husks still on) after ~1.5 hours. The moisture coming off the corn kept the dome temp at 210, though I know the chicken grill temp had to be higher. The chicken cooked bone down, except the last 20 minutes. Color was very uniform on both sides with this method.[p]I was really surprised at how wide open I was able to allow the vents, while still not really influencing the dome temps, both with the corn off and on. The indirect method really seemed to take a lot of the micro-adjustment out of the vents that I was beginning to get used to.[p]This cook probably would have been faster direct, but I wanted to experiment with indirect (this was my first attempt), and didn't want to burn any of the chicken.[p]Anyway, the chicken and corn were both very good. A couple of ears could have been cooked longer, but they were all extremely edible. 15 breasts for 5 adults and 5 kids...what wasn't gone Saturday night was gone by 5pm Sunday. Nothing went to waste. This was the first really good cook on my egg. My wife finally gave me kudos for a good result. I was conservative with the smoke (just a couple of mesquite chips) and the indirect both contributed to just a great natural flavor. I did rub the chickens with a simple salt/pepper/paprika/onion/garlic rub, about 2 hours before. The skin had a nice hint of a peppery taste, but wasn't the least bit salty...just what I was hoping for.[p]This will be the last cook before we move (this upcoming Saturday) so the memory will have to stay with me for while.[p]Enjoy,[p]--sdb[p]PS- Dome temp was 125 BEFORE starting the cook...another fine day in Phoenix!

sprinter · June 2001

sdbelt,[p]Thanks for the details on the cook, sounds like you really did yourself and your egg proud. Good luck on the move. Be careful with that egg too. May be worth taking it apart as much as possible to be sure and not damage it.[p]Troy

Large BBQ last Saturday night

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