Problem MiniMax getting to indirect cooking temps

Cmyachtie

So have read a lot and learned o lot here from all of you in the last year with getting to know cooking on the BGE, but am stumpedwith indirect cooking
Did another chicken yesterday, got temp up to 400 after lighting and placed eggvector drippan and rack a d let it come to 375  and placed room temp chicken on rack.
90 mins later despite opening bottom vent all the way and top half, no go getting to 350.

of course internal temp got to 160 and no crispy skin.. 

Any suggestions what i am missing??
thanks

RememberTheAlomar

Is you thermometer too close to the meat?

Carolina Q

Couple of thoughts... Put your "stuff" (platesetter, other hardware) in there as soon as the egg is lit.  Let everything but the meat come up to temp together. If you don't, when you reach target temp and put all that cold stuff in there then, the temp will drop dramatically. It will drop when you put that 40° meat in there too, but that can't be helped.

Don't place your oven temp thermo probe too close to the meat. It'll give a lower than actual temp. I clip mine to the dome thermo probe. Don't know or care what the temp at the grid or next to the meat is. Dome temp is good enough for BGE so it's good enough for me.

Cmyachtie

RememberTheAlomar said:

Is you thermometer too close to the meat?

Well I suppose in the minimax it always is....LOL

fishlessman

your temp probe is too close to the chicken, but if its not climbing up and you cleaned the ash out before the cook and theres enough lump in there, take that daisy off the egg.

Cmyachtie

fishlessman said:

your temp probe is too close to the chicken, but if its not climbing up and you cleaned the ash out before the cook and theres enough lump in there, take that daisy off the egg.

Have taken daisy off then goes nuclear and when I put it back on goes back to too low temps for indirect cooking, have been paying with half daisy etc. Like I did yesterday.
Still,a frustrating experience, wishing had gone for the large I believe should have....more mass, more lump etc. Does that make any sense?

fishlessman

you should not be having this problem with mid range temps,  do a cook with no daisy and control the temps with just the lower vent. put your probe in where the dial gage is and dont put it in so far that its near the chicken.

Stormbringer

Cmyachtie said:

RememberTheAlomar said:

Is you thermometer too close to the meat?

Well I suppose in the minimax it always is....LOL

Not always ... 



You just need to have enough of the temp probe inside the Egg to read the temperature. For the probe that comes with the Egg, it needs about half of the probe length inside. 

Photo Egg

Agree with @fishlessman. Remove cast iron daisy when you want to reach roasting temps cooking indirect. You should not go Nuclear because you can shut down the lower vent to calm it down if needed. The spikes are normally caused because a flame ignites in the lump and it takes longer to go out after you close the dome with daisy top off. 

Cmyachtie

Ok will try to loose the daisy next time I do a spatchock chicken and see if I can get it right, have some other indirect cooks done with success (smaller meat mass).

on the dome thermometer will put a cork on there next time as well, however thinking about that when I see the light color of the chicken after two hours think that the temp readings were realistically giving me the correct low temps or chicken would have browner and skin less leathery no?

fishlessman

Cmyachtie said:

Ok will try to loose the daisy next time I do a spatchock chicken and see if I can get it right, have some other indirect cooks done with success (smaller meat mass).

on the dome thermometer will put a cork on there next time as well, however thinking about that when I see the light color of the chicken after two hours think that the temp readings were realistically giving me the correct low temps or chicken would have browner and skin less leathery no?

i complained everytime i cooked chicken for the most part of the first egging year, it was easier for me to cook it on a kettle grill. i very rarely cook anything indirect any more. theres lots of ways to do this but for me it would be raised grid, direct, skin side down til its browning and lifting off the meat( really sweating it out, fighting that need to flip it), cook the skin first, then a flip and finish, somewhere around 350 dome but not really trying hard to stay at that temp. i would have also cut the wings and legs off, i never like to mix chicken parts, all the parts cook differently, my butcher will spatch the bird for me and keep the legs and wings to sell elsewhere. if its wings, i just cook wings....or just thighs....or the spatched trimmed carcass

saluki2007

Biggest thing is removing daisy wheel.  I only use it if I'm trying to keep my temps below 300.

Chubbs

What’s an eggvector?

Cmyachtie

Chubbs said:

What’s an eggvector?

Sorry Convector or platesetter I guess is the correct term.....

Cmyachtie

saluki2007 said:

Biggest thing is removing daisy wheel.  I only use it if I'm trying to keep my temps below 300.

Thanks, now I know this is the “normal” for the small or minimax.

Cmyachtie

Cmyachtie said:

Chubbs said:

What’s an eggvector?

Sorry Convector or platesetter I guess is the correct term.....actually ConvEGGtor , not convector...LOL

GoooDawgs

Cmyachtie said:

Did another chicken yesterday, got temp up to 400 after lighting and placed eggvector drippan and rack a d let it come to 375  and placed room temp chicken on rack.
90 mins later despite opening bottom vent all the way and top half, no go getting to 350.

Surprised nobody has commented on the "room temp chicken. "  With poultry go straight from fridge to egg, way too many issues can occur with it getting anywhere close to room temp.

Cmyachtie

Get your point, I should clarify however my “room temp. Definition “ here is actually 48F when I inserted the temp probe going into the Egg, still foodsafe. I get it out of fridge when I light the egg and finish the rub then place it in our pantry which is the coolest room in the house before going on the egg.