Help! Chicken bitter and veggies too smokey

Unknown

I've had my BGE for about 2 weeks now. I've done ribs and steaks, which both turned out great. Last night I did a beer can chicken. I cooked it direct at 350 for about an hour until I hit 185 degrees. A little jerk seasoning and a butt full of Shiner Bock! The bottom of the chicken (closest to the grid) was very bitter tasting. I suspect this was caused by all of the smoke being created by the fat dripping on to the fire and coming back up on the bird. Any thoughts?? Also, I put on some vegetable skewers about 5 minutes before I pulled the chicken off, and they were way too smokey for my liking. Again, I assume that was because of the smoke from the drippings. Should I use a drip pan next time, or is this normal or abnormal? [p]thanks

MickeyT

Banjoman,[p]I'm a little surprised that you didn't burn that dude up.[p]If you set your bird in an aluminum pan, circle or square, what ever, your birds will come out great. 350 is the right temp.[p]I like to pull mine whe they are about to fall apart. To quote Tim M, they go like free money.[p]Not sure about the veggies. They do suck up smoke though.[p]Mick

Unknown

Banjoman, What kind of wood did you use? Sounds to me like you used too much smoke too. Too much wood smoke will give you a bitter taste more readily than the fat in fire taste. I have found that when cooking directly, some woods don't work well for this and IMHO cherry is one of these. As much as I like cherry, I do not like it for direct cooking.[p]I won't comment on your egging technique to cook the bird as I am not qualified to do that, but I will comment on your abusing alcohol in the fashion you did. You should have drank that beer instead of using it to flavor a chicken. Next time drink the beer and use a combination of lemon juice, apple juice and Italian dressing to flavor the chicken. The taste is much better.[p]Lager dude,[p]JDB - Juggy D Beerman

JSlot

Banjoman,[p]I do BBC about once every two weeks. I DO NOT use a drip pan and haven't had any problems. I cook the birds at 325-350° and keep a fairly close eye on the temp. If you haven't done so, check the calibration on your dome thermometer. It sounds like your fire could have been too hot. Calibrate the thermo using boiling water. It should read 212°. If it doesn't, adjust the reading using the nut on the back of the thermo. Also, I never use any smoke woods for poultry. Poultry soaks up the smoke flavor big time. The lump provides enough smoke to flavor it nicely. Hope this helps.[p]Jim

Mike in MN

JDB,
I agree. Did 2 earlier this week and a couple of the slackers at my house (you know..walk in sit, down and eat) whined about the beer taste to the chicken...so, no more beer in the butt. I'll have to adjust the flavor...(why does a Stumpbaby story come to mind?)[p]Mike in MN