New Egg Owner needs a little help

Unknown

We have been enjoying our egg and have had great success with large pieces of meats, all types. However, when doing small pieces, such as BBQ boneless, skinless chicken breast, I can't seem to get a nice "crisp" to the BBQ sauce exterior. I have not attempted to get my BGE up to very high temperatures and suspect that might have a nicer result. As a matter of fact, I can't seem to get the temperature up above 400 degrees. I would like to try to do burgers or steaks and guess that these would be best at high temps as well. Does anyone have any comments or suggestions?[p]Thanks

Animal Eater

swburkle,
Open both vents all the way and use more fuel and you WILL get your BGE hotter than you want, blieve me. 1000F is easily reached, if you so desire.[p]

CR

swburkle, Standard things to check are calibration of your dome thermometer and make sure that the slot in the firebox is properly lined-up with the draft opening. Check the thermometer by inserting in with boiling water it should read at or very close to 212°.[p]As for your chicken part of the problem could be cooking at too low a temperature(again check your calibration) and whether you are cooking direct or indirect. Like you I like a crispy skin so I usually cook direct at about 350° dome(remember the grill temp may be quite a bit lower than dome temp, especially when cooking indirect). I have found that I usually cook about 15° to 20° above the recipe dome temp to get the results that I prefer.

Tim M

swburkle,[p]
You need to add more lump in the firebox. You can never have too much but you can easily have too little and grilling temps need LOTS in there. The manual says something stupid like a couple handsfull. That is wrong, you need atleast 1/2 or more of the firebox full and don't forget to stir the old left over lump before adding more.[p]Tim

Nature Boy

swburkle,
Like the fellers below said, maybe you need some more fuel. Let it get ripping good with vents wide, and lid closed.[p]Boneless skinless breasts cook pretty quickly when you have a good healthy hot fire. I like 550-600 for 5 or 6 minutes a side, or to 165 internal. this works great if the thick portions are pounded out a bit. [p]For thicker unpounded ones, 450 for 8-10 minutes a side usually does the job....your goal being to get a crusty unburnt exterior...right when the middle is done. [p]Hope that helps. Let us know how it goes.
Beers!
Chris

JSlot

swburkle,[p]I agree with NB on the method of cooking the breasts. You mentioned getting the sauce to "crisp up". Not sure what you mean by that, but you don't want to add sauce at those temperatures if it has any sugar in it. It will scorch in a heartbeat. To bake the sauce on, reduce temps to ~300° and apply sauce every 5 mins 3 or 4 times at the end of the cook.[p]Jim