Lemongrass Ginger Brined Roasted Chicken Report and Question Please

Nature Boy

Mornin![p]What I did:
Brined a 5 pound chicken in:
2 quarts water
1/3 cup salt
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 Tbs ginger root
2 tsp Cinammon
4 tbs Tamarind Concentrate
2 stalks chopped lemongrass (will crush next time to extract more flavor)
1 tsp black peppercorns[p]Thanks Brant for the salt.honey/cinnamon proportions. A perfect balance and no saltiness.[p]After boiling the mixture, and cooling, I brined the bird for 12 hours, rinsed and patted dry. Mixed up: 1/2 cup balsamic dressing with oil (from Grillin Bill), 1 finely minced shallot, 1 tbs minced ginger, corriander seeds and pepper. Rubbed all under skin. Rubbed olive oil outside.[p]Roasted on a vertical roaster in drip pan on 2 thin firebricks (side to side). Cooked at 375 for an hour (internal 150). When I inspected the bird at that point, the top was brown, but the bottom closest to the drip pan was still pale. I moved the polder probe down to the thigh, and got a 145 reading. To cook the bottom more, I removed the drip pan, and spread the firebricks apart with a gap, and set the vertical roaster so it bridged the gap....which allowed the bottom to cook direct. The dripping smoked a lot, but the bottom browned nicely.[p]This worked okay, but the breast meat on top got over 170 by the time the thigh got to 170. The brining saved it from being dry. The meat was very flavorful, and you could literally squeeze the juice out of the breast meat. The lemongrass/ginger/cinnamon flavor was all the way thru the meat, but maybe crushing the lemongrass will kick that flavor up more next time.[p]The question:
I set the bird on the roaster with the neck up, as that is the way it fits best. But since the end farthest from the drip pan cooks the fastest, and has the breast meat, maybe it is better to cook with butt up?? But that would be tough to fit in the roaster since the neck cavity is small.[p]Anybody notice this uneven cooking with a drip pan/vertical roaster setup?? How did you correct it??[p]Thanks for putting up with my long post.
NB

Elder Ward

Nature Boy,[p]Yes have had same problem. Just never figured out how to correct it before. Thanks. I think cooking it upside down will just add to the problem as it is caused by steam not allowing it to brown.[p]Elder Ward[p]

sprinter

Nature Boy,[p]I've got one of those indoor rotisseries (sp) that cooks with the element on the side so all the sides of the bird get cooked evenly. With the rotisserie was a neat little contraption that looks exactly like a vertical roaster but it has 4 skewers that stick up instead of the part that you insert into the cavity of the bird. If you can find one of these contraptions at a kitchen store, it would work perfect. It will fit in the existing vertical roaster pan (at least this one fits in mine) and it allows you to skewer the bird on the skewers, neck side down, so it will cook more evenly. I've never tried it, my medium egg cooks the birds pretty evenly it seems. Maybe the large has a greater heat differential between the dome temp and the grate temp? Just a thought. You could probably pick up one of these vertical skewer devices at a kitchen store for a couple of bucks?[p]Troy

RLA

Nature Boy,
I believe your solution lies in how you cook the chicken.
Instead of using the vertical roaster, butterfly the chicken. The whole purpose of the butterfly preparation is to intentionally expose all portions of the chicken to the cooking heat. You get even browning along with equal cooking times to achieve doneness in both white and dark meats.
Bob

Char-Woody

Nature Boy, your exactly right on the uneveness of the cook. I elevate my birds at least 2 inches over the drip pans and never use anything other than a second grill. This allows the full ciculation of the heat in the upper chamber to fully encompass the object of your cook. Anytime you put object in the pan directly or in close proximity to it and disrupt the air flow around the meat, it will cook unevenly..At least in my experience this has been the case.
This is usually with firebricks and drip pans in tandem.
Think "air suspension".
Cheers..C~W[p]

Nature Boy

RLA,
I guess that means cooked direct?? What temps? 300?
I want to try that. I wonder how much the drippings will smoke?? Wanted to see Cat do the butterflied turkey at the eggfest, but after eating her meatloaf, I didn't mind![p]Thanks
NB

Nature Boy

Char-Woody,
Thanks. Makes sense. Maybe a smaller drip pan, and less water would help also. The fairly large drip pan was shielding a lot of heat from the bottom of the bird I suppose. And the large surface area of the water being at 212 doen't help matters. Great points. I have a shallower smaller pan I will try next time and ditch the firebricks (or maybe just one under the drip pan). The shorter walls of the drip pan, and smaller size might allow more heat to reach the bottom better.[p]BTW, the bird was a few inches over the water.[p]The brine was a success, so I will try it again. Nice lemony, ginger, flavor gets all into the meat. And that cinnamon that is mellow, but clearly makes a mark.[p]I'll try your tips next time, or maybe try it butterflied![p]Cheers
NB

BluesnBBQ

I was wondering recently if you could use the BGE as a rotisserie type cooker. I had the idea of putting a spit through a bird, and having it dangle over the coals with no grill. I guess you could do that and rotate it a few times while it's cooking. The lid wouldn't shut completely, but I bet that wouldn't affect the heat much. I'll have to find a spit, or the right size metal rod and try it some time.[p]