Tandoori cooking

Unknown

Is it possible to use an Egg as a tandoor? In tandoori cooking, meat is placed on skewers which are lowered through the top of a very hot ceramic barbecue (700-800 degrees F.) Also, flat bread is cooked by pressing it against the inside wall of the barbecue. Delicious stuff -- which you can try at most Indian resturants. Anyway, I've been looking for a tandoor -- but they are hard to come by and expensive. So my question is: Has anyone out there done tandoori barbecue on a Big Green Egg. . . I mean: done it really well? Thanks. -- John

BBQfan1

John,
I am going to qualify my response by saying that I have NOT tried to utlilize the Egg as a tandoor. Normally I wouldn't respond to a query that I didn't have some experience in answering, but I doubt if there are many here who have tried full-on tandoor-style usage of the Egg, so, a few points and comments....
- some folks HAVE successfully tried items like naan etc on the Egg, but usually on a pizza stone rather than the Egg walls.
- most use the Egg for a variety of cooks, high temp AND low n slow. The low n slow cooks of high-fat pork and beef can cause blackening of the side walls through the slow buring of the fuel. Creosote wouldn't be good at all on an Egg you'd want to side-wall some bread! Therefore, if you want the Egg SOLEY as a tandoor cooker, I do see some potential there, provided you:
- went with a medium or large. I've heard most with smalls say they are fighting to get much above 600, which just doesn't reach the temps you're after.
- used it 'exclusively' for these high temp tandoor-style cooks to help self-clean the Egg's interior walls.[p]My strongest recommendation would be to approach your nearest dealer and ask for a demo. Most of the demo Eggs are lightly used (compared to folks like JSlot who cooked for 44 straight days on his, right Jim? LOL). You provide some bread dough and a skewer of meat and see if it works to your satisfaction!
I have long been tempted to try a ramped fire in the firebox with an angled skewer holding a threaded leg of lamb suspended just above the blazing hot coals.
Those are my thoughts on your question; hopefully there is someone with real life experience in Egg/tandoor cookery that will come forward!
Good luck!
Qfan

fishlessman

John, my plans for this weekend were to try this with a stack of boneless chicken breasts. i just made a skewer welded to an 8 inch dia plate so that i can place it on 2 firebricks in the center of the egg. last weekend i made a spatchcocked tandoori chicken on a raised grill direct at 375-400 degrees.it was good' however i know i can improve it. i was thinking of this skewer technique at 550 with a stack of breasts. maybe when half cooked i will raise it to 750. how big are the pieces of meat that are typically hung in a 700 degree tandoor and is ther a heat deflector so that the bottom does not burn.

Nature Boy

BBQfan1,
There was a post a couple years ago from a guy who did naan on the inside walls. I know he said he cleaned an area of the dome first. Not sure how new the egg was, but I expect fairly. The naan looked incredible. All bubbly and gnarly. Very cool. Forget who, and don't 'member any more details. But sure looked interesting, and something especially worth trying on a new or lightly used egg. [p]Might be a good idear for someone to try at the Eggfest?? Or will it stick to brand new ceramic?[p]Chris[p]

Cap'n

Nature Boy,
Here is the link for the Naan.[p]cheers...cap'n
[ul][li]Naan on a BGE[/ul]