Winter Chicken

BluesnBBQ

Last night I tried a modified version of "winter chicken" (the New York Times recipe for a salted, roasted chicken). Instead of using those pumpkin pie spices , I used garlic powder, onion powder cayenne and white pepper. The rub ended up being (roughly) 3 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, couple of shakes each of garlic powder, onion powder, white pepper and cayenne pepper. I rubbed this all over the chicken and inside the cavity and let the bird sit on a rack, uncovered, in the fridge for two days.[p]I got the Egg up to 500, with a pizza stone on the grid. I put a drip pan on the pizza stone and the chicken (on the rack) over the drip pan. I cooked it for about 15 minutes breast side down, then turned it and cooked it another 15 breast side up. I turned it over one more time for the rest of the cook. I didn't use a probe or thermometer for this one - I just cooked it for about an hour (I figured 15 minutes per lb for a 4 lb bird) and took it out when it looked ready. I let it sit for about fifteen minutes before carving it.[p]It turned out very juicy and flavorful, and the skin was the best I ever had. It was very crispy - like fried chicken. I don't know if this was from the salt rub, the high cooking temp, or a combination of both. It wasn't the best egged chicken I had, but it was worth trying for the skin alone. The next time I want to cook a duck I'm going to do it this way.

Bamabob

Did you stay at 500 degrees for the whole cook?

BluesnBBQ

BamaBob,[p]Pretty much. The recipe says to lower the temp to 450 after the first 15 minutes. I had the top open and I shut the bottom vent about 3/4 shut. It got down to 450, but soon went back up to 500.