Cooking chickens tonight

sdbelt

I've had my egg for 10 days now, and I'm just getting to my second serious cook (2 attempts at jerky don't count). I've got 2 5 lb chickens on vertical racks and 2 baked potatoes in my large BGE. They've been going for about an hour, and they are already a beautiful golden brown. As prep, the birds were rubbed in salt, pepper, paprika, and celery salt, but only allowed to sit this way for 10 minutes, before they were in the egg. Hopefully that short amount of time won't create too much of a problem.[p]Somehow I managed to break my brand new Polder thermometer (purchased today!), however. My old one is broken as well (always read "low") and now this one is always reading "hi". This happened in very short order (under 20 minutes), with the probe inserted into a chicken breast, and the dome temp at 300. I can't believe I blew it up, so this particular unit must have been defective. Oh well. [p]I'll have to "guess" when the birds are done...at least another 30 minutes from now.[p]Getting hungry.[p]--sdb

Unknown

sdbelt,[p]My Polders get a little squirrelly sometime too. When it reads low I've got to jiggle the cable where it connects to the plug-in connection. Then it works fine until the next cook.[p]OctoberGlory

Bamabob

sdbelt,
Hey! sounds like some good chicken coming up.So far my temp tools have behaved themselves(other than the dome thermostat,I replaced it and added a spacer to hold head away from EGG surface,been fine after that modification).If you have time before next whole chicken cook,try brineing overnite in cup kosher salt,cup lt. brown sugar and gallon cold water.IMHO this speeds cooking time a little and also makes for a juicyer(sp) bird.I found a 21 cup Rubbermaid container at Wallyworld that is ideal for brineing a 5# chicken or turkey breast.BGE chickens can't be beat. Bob

Charla

sdbelt,
Hey...I found that my Polder probe takes on moisture during cleaning, and returns back to normal after a dry out session in my oven...on it's last leg I'm sure...Charla

Gretl

sdbelt,
I always keep my emergency back-up probe thermometers handy. I have a Taylor digital instant read thermometer and an older dial-style instant-read. I must confess that even though I have a Polder, I don't use it every time I roast a chicken because I sort of have the time figured out by experience. However, I do always check the internal temp in the breast and in the thigh before removing the bird from the egg.
Just my two cent's worth!
Cheers and Happy Egging,
Gretl