Barbecues are bloody brilliant Part 3

rousetafarian

I'm on the way to the Airport.....

IronGiant

That gravy looks great   Exactly what device is that ?

cram

Agreed it's a nice way of obtaining something as a basis for a gravy and it gives a nice aroma whilst the chicken is cooking but it does bugger all in terms of helping the chicken cook or flavouring it. Where's it gone? Steam which dissipates as soon as you remove that stopper or collects on the cavity of the chicken (which you don't eat). The wine is not going to be absorbed into the chicken.

cram

It's the Weber Style Poultry Roaster. Has a small chamber in which to put liquid then a pronged device that sits on top of that which holds the chicken. I use mine to make a doughnut shaped brownie with a fudge sauce cooked in the chamber. Your rotisserie is giving you better chicken.

Pecker

Dunno about that, depends how you do it (temperature, time).

I think there's something to be said about all methods, pros and cons with each.

The roaster collects the gravy better, I think.

You can also use it in a conventional oven (if it's big enough), which gives different results again.

Steve W

cram

No I think rotisserie gives a more evenly cooked end result than beer can chicken. Chicken is one of the few things people cook where they are cooking the whole animal. You've got bones, different thicknesses of meat, light and dark meat. It's very easy to over cook the breasts before the thighs are done (which typically is what happens if you just stick it in the oven and insist on having a food safe temp at the deepest part of the bird) Beer can does help with this because of the position of the chicken but having tried both I think rotisserie yields a moister more evenly cooked end result. I'd certainly cook a chicken beer can style and enjoy a good meal out of it but given a choice I would choose rotisserie over beer can every time.

Pecker

I think, as is implicit in your post, it's the uneven shape of the chicken that's problematic.

There are various ways round this, and none of them lends itself any more to rotisserie than any other method.

The best way to even out the shape of a chicken is to spatchcock it, or better still quarter it.

Steve W

cram

Sure spatchcock is good but if you cast your mind back a few posts our "debate" started because I said to IG that he would get better results using HIS rotisserie compared to a beer can style. I think rotisserie still has a bit of an advantage giving the self basting nature of the cooking style.

Pecker

Ah!

You'll have to forgive me - I forgot the start if the particular part of thus thread. My error.

I would just say that, chicken quarters don't need regular basting.

If you're spatchcocking or beer canning the cooking us quicker and drying out is less of an issue.

But yes, if you have a particularly large chicken the rotisserie method certainly has advantages in this respect, though I feel not massive ones, unless you're cooking at a particularly low temperature for a particularly long time.

More of an issue with turkey, I think.

Steve W

cram

Drying out is an issue. A kettle bbq is more akin to a fan assisted oven than a normal oven. This increases the rate at which moisture is removed from the meat. Which is why generally your chicken will cook quicker on the bbq than in an normal oven.

Can't say I've ever slow cooked a chicken on the rotisserie, I'm unlikely to try as I'm not a fan of chicken cooked at low temps, don't see any advantages to cooking that way.