dome temp on indirect?

skihorn

I have had my large BGE for about six weeks and have had excellent luck following BGE recipes and having the food come out perfect. Yesterday, I tried one of my favorite family recipes - chicken and rice casserole.

I have cooked it perhaps a 100 times in the oven without any problem - 2 hours at 300. Like clock work it is done right on time. Remembering all of the posts about brikets should be done at 250 because the dome runs 25 degrees hotter than grill I set the BGE for about 325 thinking that would be 300 on mid level. I cooked it directly on the plate setter with the legs down. I used two and a half pecan chunks.

After 1 hour 40 minutes I opened the dome to check on it. It was definitely done and a little overcooked, even though it still needed 20 minutes per conventional oven. Questions:

1. Was 325 too high? Do I need to calibrate my dome gauge? It is only six weeks old and otherwise seems to be performing perfectly when following BGE recipes. Of course, for BGE recipes I make no temp adjustment.

2. Should I have not put the casserole dish (metal 9x13) directly on the plate setter? I could have placed my pizza stone on the plate setter for more buffer, or put the plate setter with legs up and then dish on grill so that it was raised off the setter. In hindsight either of those make sense. However, I am not sure that was the only problem as the overdoneness was not particularly from the bottom up. In fact, it seemed to be just simply overcooked throughout. Fortunately, it was still very good, just a little drier. If I can make the right temp adjustment and use a little less pecan, next time should be outstanding.

Thoughts from the experts...

Freddie
League City, TX

Morro Bay Rich

Remember, in your oven the baking dish is surrounded by air. In your setup the baking dish is in direct contact with the platesetter and you can bet the platesetter temperature is far in excess of the air temp in the Egg. The lump is reported to burn at >1200 degrees and the radiant heat coming off the lump will heat that platesetter WAY up.

SmokinGuitarPlayer

I typically, when using a pan or dish to bake something in, put the platesetter legs up, then the regular cooking grate and put the dish / pan on the grate ....then you have air circulation just like in your oven ...except better in the Egg. You'll get the hang of it in no time.
Happy Eggin

Broc

Agreed --

Next time -- platesetter, legs up

Topped by grid of your choice--

Then the casserole --

And I'd still set the dome temp to 300F...

OK -- Return and Report!

~ Broc

skihorn

Thanks guys. That makes sense, and I am not sure why I didn't do it right the first time. It did seem strange that the bottom wasn't burned, just overcooked (not a lot) all the way through.

At least I can say this is the first of more than a dozen cooks that wasn't just about dead on perfect. With the BGE and all the help from this forum, even I can be a great cook!

Freddie
League City, TX

civil eggineer

The egg cooks much like a convection oven improving browning and lessening cooking times.