pmillen

Thank the Lord. I'm ordering before you sell out again. I may order a three or four cases before the hoarders get it all.

I guess so. It's not cast or forged. Apparently not, based on the preceding replies. My only experience with stainless sheet metal was when I was in high school trying to make a stainless steel firewall for a '33 Ford coupe. Based on the comments here, I can see my mistakes; not enough pressure, no cutting oil and drill speed too high.

1. I suspect that the bold font sentence should read, "I have had to keep my bottom vent more open than when not using the bottom plate. 2. It doesn't seem logical but I can't dispute Family_cook's observed results. 3. The test results may validate the observations.

FWIW, on my Big Joe I use a stoker with the controller probe at grate level, close to the food (sometimes on a toothpick stuck into the food). The stoker thermometer and the dome thermometer track. It may be due to the stoker’s convection oven-like air movement. I understand that the cool food is cooling the temperature probe. That’s because it’s cooling the air surrounding the food. But it’s exactly that air temperature that I want to control, not the air in the chimney. BTW, most temperature differences or fluctuations don’t concern me. The food’s internal temperature tells me when it’s done. I'm really only interested in close temperature control as a way to estimate completion times in order to coordinate side dishes.

Marcia and I don't care for oversmoked food either—sometimes it causes me to burp smoke for hours. But chicken hasn't done that. In fact we prefer to allow the rendered fat to drip. See– If you read it to the end you'll see that opinion is divided. It's apparently a difference in preferences or set-ups.

So—smoking wood added and juices dripping directly on the coals? I regularly let chicken drip on the coals in my drum smoker and kamado. I think it adds a better flavor but I've read that it disgusts some people. IDK if there's some difference in their set-ups or if it's just a matter of taste. I'm assuming that you shut the lid and ran at about 450°F.

That's a timely post for me. Thanks.

How well did it work for you? Do you have a photo of the set-up? I'm curious about D&C use, drip pan, coals piled to one side, that sort of thing.

For one spatchcocked chicken that serves two people. The recipe is for enough sauce to marinate and baste two servings, so multiply it by the number of servings (½ chicken per person) you are preparing. INGREDIENTS 1 fryer chicken per person two people Marinade ½ cup soy sauce ½ cup ketchup ¼ cup chicken broth ¼ cup pineapple juice (optional) 4 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce 2 Tbsp fresh ginger minced and smashed to form paste that emulsifies 2 Tbsp garlic minced and smashed to form paste that emulsifies 2 tsp dry Chinese-style mustard 4 tsp lime juice DIRECTIONS Huli-Huli is a Hawaiian phrase that roughly translates to “turn-turn.” This recipe is great for just about any grill and will work very well for those who like rotisserie cooking. Some cooks insist that every time they grill chicken, especially whole or half chickens, they brine it for at least 24 hours. If you desire to do this – I say have at it. Sometimes I don’t know what I’m going to grill for dinner at night until I see what’s available in the grocery store meat counter at 5 o’clock, so to brine or marinate overnight is not always an option. This is a recipe that you can cook without a long marinate. You can make it up in about 15 minutes and serve in under an hour or marinate overnight and cook the next day. Preparation 1. Mix all marinade ingredients in a non-reactive container and divide in half. 2. Place chicken in plastic bag and add marinade, seal and place in refrigerator for 3 hours or up to overnight. 3. Remove from marinade and pat dry, discard used marinade. Cook 4. Preheat grill to Medium High (350F – 450°F) and make sure the grates are CLEAN. 5. Warm the reserved sauce on a side burner or warming rack. 6. Place the chicken, skin-side up, on grates to allow the bones to heat up the core for a few minutes then turn it and place it on a new section of the grates to sear the skin. 7. After the chicken skin has seared, turn the bird over and baste it with sauce, allowing it to glaze a bit before turning again. 8. Turn it about every 5 minutes, basting it with sauce each time. 9. Remove the chicken from the grill upon reaching the internal temperature of 160°F (instant read thermometer placed in the center of the breast or thickest portion of the meat on thigh – away from bone) and place it on a clean warm plate. 10. Baste it once more and cover it with aluminum foil and let it stand for at least 10 minutes – allowing for the internal temp of the chicken to rise approximately 10 degrees and continue cooking to your desired internal temperature. NOTE: Use a meat thermometer while cooking to check for doneness – 180°F for whole chicken, 170°F for bone-in parts and 160°F for boneless parts. ROTISSERIE: This recipe can be used in preparing a whole chicken on the rotisserie. Use the guidelines for heat settings that are appropriate to your grill, basting about every 5 minutes with sauce.

You might like Hawaiian huli huli chicken. There are commercial rubs and marinades. I have a recipe that's pretty darn good. It's a copy of the Hawaiian street vendor chicken that's roasted over coals. Before their spits were mechanized the pit master had an assistant turn the chicken whenever they yelled, "Huli, huli" (turn, turn). I'll post in in the recipe section.

I hired a couple of day laborers a few years ago when I had a similar need. They can probably get it into a pickup. You can drive up your gravel driveway and they can carry it to your destination. You may want to consider building one of the kamado sedan chairs as used in this video –

When I lived in Minnesota and North Dakota I fished quite a lot. One year my logbook totaled over 400 hours. That's a lot of sun exposure—and I didn't take any precautions. So, now I'm paying the price. I'm paying for my dermatologist's son's college. Right now I'm on one of those creams, Imiquimod 5%. It's a regimen of 2-weeks of cream, then 2-weeks off, repeated two more times.

I, too, am interested in advice from those with first-hand experience. I've been thinking of smoking several for a block party—maybe not seven, though. BTW, my experience with poem butts is that they're a bit rhymey.

A good resource. I made a screen shot.

It's tough to beat chicken over charcoal. Nice job. I have some questions, just for my use in future cooks– Did you brine the bird? Was it placed directly over the charcoal or did you use some sort of heat deflector or drippings catch-pan? Was the skin texture to your liking?

Those are nice little sprayers for everything except oil. I thought spraying oil from it would be better than Pam and such. I tried a couple of Mistos and at least one other maker's sprayer. They're advertised as suitable for oils but every one I bought became irreversibly plugged.

I think it's a good idea to use food-safe bottles. I couldn't find any but I saw this product in the grocery store and thought, "That must be a food-safe bottle." I quickly used up the product and repurposed it as my spritzer.

You've given it a polished look. I like the detail you provide making it easier to duplicate your cook, as opposed to so many posts that amount to, "Look what I did." I find them annoying and useless. Kamadoguru's Blackstone Cooking thread is a prime example, but it's several pages long so some people must enjoy posts without How-To detail. It would help me if you would also post the recipe in the comments below the video so I can Show More and copy/paste it into my recipe file. I also subscribed and am looking forward to more.

Set it on top of the water heater. It's usually slightly warm and dry there. I'd leave it there for as long as you can stand to. Maybe even make your next pizza on the grates.

Nope. The legs are welded on. I'll have to tip the smoker on its side and have someone brace the leg from behind. That'll be the wood to drill into.

HSS???? (Sorry, this isn't an area where I have experience.)

I’m interested in adding castors to my 2013 Cookshack Fast Eddy PG500. It has wheels on only one leg set so I have to lift the right-side legs off the ground in order to move it. That’s a bit troublesome for me. I’d like to use these adjustable-height castors on the right legs and put slightly larger wheels on the left ones to compensate. But I don’t look forward to drilling mounting holes in the stainless-steel legs. A guy in a hardware store told me that his drill bits that are better suited for drilling SS with a hand drill, but he didn’t seem trustworthy. Do any readers have first-hand knowledge of appropriate drill bits and technique?

Thanks for the tip. I regularly brine fowl (and other things) when they aren't cooked sous vide. The result is the same, maybe better, when flavorings are added to the SV bag.

Thank you all for your suggestions. I’ve compiled a list of cooks to test. I don’t know how many we’ll work our way through before we tire of chicken. Chicken Breast Cook Tests Marinate and Smoke 1. Slice breast into 1-2″ strips 2. Marinate in – a. Lawry's Caribbean Jerk Sauce b. Wishbone Italian c. Wishbone Italian with Worcestershire sauce d. Newman's own Oil & Vinegar Salad Dressing e. Teriyaki f. Buffalo Wild Wings marinade, available at Walmart– i. Asian Zing ii. Honey Bbq iii. Parmesan Garlic 3. Smoke at 250° on Frogmats until IT is 160° Sous Vide 1. Preheat SV cooker at 148°F 2. Add butter, salt and pepper with one or more– a. Rosemary b. Tarragon c. Thyme d. Lemon and garlic 3. Skip step 2. SV with– a. Salamida's State Fair Spiedie Sauce b. Wegman’s Rosemary Balsamic Marinade c. John Henry's Mojave Garlic Pepper d. McCormick’s Tomato/Basil Marinade e. Olde Thompson Tex-Mex Chipotle Seasoning 4. Cook for 1-3 hours 5. Brown by pan-frying in ghee 6. Skip steps 2 & 3 and drizzle with pineapple/habanero sauce Inject 1. Preheat SV cooker at 148°F 2. Inject seasonings of choice mixed with– a. Oil b. Flavored vinegars 3. SV for 1-3 hours 4. Brown by pan-frying in ghee