"The Chicken" on the Mini

chocdoc

When in doubt - RTFM!

Read the part about shaking the chicken with the flour, read the part about making the sauce - neglected to notice the part about the vegetables and neglected to notice the part about the raised grill.

So here we are with no veg and certainly no raised grill for the mini. Forged ahead anyway.

Also neglected to pay attention when my friend suggested trimming the back bone off the leg/backs and ignored my own little inner voice that suggested removing any extra fat chunks.

So creosote is made from burning chicken skins I'm guessing!

After about 45 minutes the internal temp of the legs was 184 so decided it was time to get these little black puppies off the grill. Removed the creosote infused skin, dipped in the sauce, wrapped in parchment and foil and into the cooler with a towel for 20 minutes.

It's not pretty - but chicken is nice and moist and the sauce is great. Of course I'm already thinking of more things I want to adapt to this technique. Wonder if a nice honey garlic sauce applied the same way would work?

Untitled by ChocDoc1, on Flickr

AZRP

LOL, its supposed to look like this. -RP

chocdoc

AZRP wrote:

LOL, its supposed to look like this. -RP

Yeah it really needs that flour impregnated skin to hold on to the sauce!

lowercasebill

between the cheese and the chicken you seem to be having suffering some mini issues click the pic for a slides show of mini cooks .. some direct some indirect



hopefully give you some ideas

Photo Egg

"Loney" will do this to your mind... :laugh:

hornhonk

Oh, no! Loney is mmm,mmm, GOOD! :P

chocdoc

lowercasebill wrote:

between the cheese and the chicken you seem to be having suffering some mini issues click the pic for a slides show of mini cooks .. some direct some indirect



hopefully give you some ideas

Bill - thanks for that - some great ideas. The perfect raised rack - a rack on a pie plate - think I would have have noticed that from the cheese you did! Duh!

Made grilled polenta on my mini this summer - turned out beautifully - let me see if I can find a picture.

molding the polenta by ChocDoc1, on Flickr

Molded up my little polenta squares in the squffin pan.

Grilled polenta by ChocDoc1, on Flickr

Actually cooked these ones in some oil and butter in a cast iron pan on the egg, but did some grilled as well - these were better for the picture I was after. Butter sauce - which I made with peppers, zucchini and mushrooms.

Capt Frank

Looks kinda like what I used to do on my old gasser that had two settings, "Hot" and "Real Hot!" :P :laugh:

Fidel

For the record, the vegetables are optional.

I do this recipe frequently and cook the chicken direct on a raised grid at 400. It works just as well direct as it does indirect so long as you don't scorch the ever loving bejeesus out of it.

Chicken can be tough to do successfully on the mini simply because it is hard to get any distance between the grid and the lump.

chocdoc

Fidel wrote:

Chicken can be tough to do successfully on the mini simply because it is hard to get any distance between the grid and the lump.

That seems to be the issue for sure - but yet I was able to do a spatchcocked chicken without a problem.

Little Steven

chocdoc,

You may want to invest in the flip ring for the mini. You can get little pizza stones for indirect cooks.

Steve

chocdoc

Interesting idea - I do have a couple of small stones that fit on it. One is a kiln shelf cut down to fit on the grill - another a 6 inch one I picked up in a thrift store.

lowercasebill

the polenta looks great.. i have been told it is different than cornmeal mush, as far as i am concerned you buy cornmeal mush and make polenta.
i will try your recipe.. cut into little rounds with a biscuit cutter and served up at an egg fest ...... THANKS ..
bill

chocdoc

It's the same thing in my books.

I just make a sturdy mixture with 750 grams of liquid to 120 grams of cornmeal and some salt. Cook until thick, add butter and parmesan. I make it in my Thermomix so it does all the stirring for me in the 45 minutes or so that it cooks.

lowercasebill

no parmesan for us Pennslyvania Germans :laugh:

chocdoc

lowercasebill wrote:

no parmesan for us Pennslyvania Germans :laugh:

What would be a good dry grating cheese for the Penn Deutsch?

PattyO

Why 184'? Chicken is safe at 165'.

chocdoc

Got that high before I first tested it. The recipe calls for cooking for 90 minutes - I suspected that might be a bit to long. Indeed it was done in about 45. Was looking for 170 F.

Mainegg

have drooled over those for ages.. do you have the 21 or the newer 31? I have a customer in England that is a sales rep and offered to ship me one.. had never came across anyone that had one though to talk to about it LOL do you find that is really replaces a lot of kitchen tools? and use it? I hate gadgets that fill the cabinets and not really used. easy clean up? many parts ? LOL

chocdoc

Mainegg wrote:

have drooled over those for ages.. do you have the 21 or the newer 31? I have a customer in England that is a sales rep and offered to ship me one.. had never came across anyone that had one though to talk to about it LOL do you find that is really replaces a lot of kitchen tools? and use it? I hate gadgets that fill the cabinets and not really used. easy clean up? many parts ? LOL

I've got the 31. My friend Anna has the 21 (I found it for her on ebay). I take it with me when I travel - don't use much else anymore - use it in place of a whole lot of other tools. Since I got it I haven't used the kitchen aid, the cuisinart or the immersion blender. I use it for all my bread doughs, batters, soups. I beat egg whites and cream, use it to make curds and sauces. I steam eggs for hard boiled eggs. I made all my ganaches in it. I have used it to temper chocolate but ultimately I usually need more chocolate than that so rarely use it for that now.

Easy to clean - most of the time you just clean it like a blender, put in some water and a bit of soap and give it a spin. But also easy to take apart. You sometimes need to take a brush to the blades. Nice thing about the blades - not sharp - so you don't cut yourself on them like a food processor.

E-mail me if you are interested - I can get the folks in Montreal to send you one. It's 110 voltage so you don't need to have a convertor as you would if you bought one from the UK.

Mainegg

I might take you up on that in the spring I have been watching them on ebay and you don't see very many. someone had a converter they had rigged up on one last fall... not to keen on that LOL

AZRP

I cook dark meat to 195-200 in order to get the fat rendered moist meat. 170 is fine for the breast but not the dark meat. -RP

chocdoc

Good to know.

[Deleted User]

To add to what AZRP said- when legs and thighs are cooked to less than 180 the meat is too rubbery for me. also, the flavor is better when it's cooked over 180.

just because you can eat it at 165 doesn't mean that it's optimum. but then again, to each his own.