Chicken dousing charcoal

[fzxdoc]

I like cherry for chicken.

Nice cook! Those birds look delicious.

You must be happy that you switched to Kingsford Professional. Weber briquettes are good for long cooks but they have to be well lit using an easier-lighting charcoal like KBB to work well in my PBC. I wouldn't waste the more expensive Weber briquettes on a short cook, personally.

Kathryn

[N227GB]

You might try something light like hickory for smoke. I never use a chunk larger than half a fist size no matter the meat.

[pkadare]

Looks good. I tend not to use any wood for chicken in the PBC since chicken takes up wood smoke like crazy as compared to other meats. I find wood in the PBC with chicken simply imparts too much smoke flavour. I'm ok without it.

[jlo]

Had to order Kingsford Comp since non of my local stores stock it and finally got a chance to try it. What a difference! Did 10-10-10 lighting, 1 rebar out and cracked the lid for the last 15min. No temp readings because all my probes are non functioning. Best chicken Ive ever made on the PBC by far. Thx for all the tips. Those that put wood chunks, what do you use for chicken. I used applewood but I would like to try cherry and/or oak.

BTW this was a frozen bird. I could only imagine what a fresh dry brined chicken that had a chance to air dry in the fridge for a couple days would be like

[shify]

I don’t bother with a full basket for short cooks but I do let the coals burn for around 10 min with lid off and rebars our after I dump in my coals. This ensures the coals are well lit. Otherwise my PBC has trouble keeping temps up.

My process is light ~40 coals in my chimney. I dump just as the top layer as a bit of ash on the corner of the briquettes. Then let burn for 10 min with rebar out and lid off. Add rebar and meat and start cooking.

[Pcobb2205]

Speaking of chicken cooked my first one on the pbc today follow y’all tips turned out great

[FireMan]

So, lemme see here, them brickets look up & see a chicken. One bricket says to another, "let’s step on the gas" & you get a hotter fire. Now if they see somethin else up there, well, that’s another story. 🕶

[FireMan]

Or you can lack the crid, Jerod Broussard talked about that once afore. Yup! 🕶

[kill2grill]

I was frustrated with this on my first few cooks on the PBC. After getting some suggestions from fzxdoc and trying out a few new methods here's what seems to work the best. Hope it helps...

1. Trim the chicken. That means when you halve it, cut the loose fat that you find at both ends. This will help with minimizing excessive dripping. Foster Farm's usually have some fatty birds...
2. You can get by on a half basket of briquettes - just fill to the edge stacked to just under the basket handle. It will provide at least 2 hours of cooking and you only need to last just over an hour to cook chicken. If I am doing more than 2 birds I'd switch to a full basket.
3. Full chimney (the smaller Weber chimney that holds 40 briquettes perfectly) ashed over a little like you mentioned.
4. 15, 10, 10 works great — but for chicken it doesn't hurt to run that last 10 for an additional 5 to 10 minutes. It helps make sure the barrel is running at high temps.
5. One rebar, if possible run at a diagonal
6. Crack the lid when the bird hits 135 and run it to 160/165 (temp probe in breast)
7. Should be done around an hour and fifteen minutes.

[fzxdoc]

I only use Kingsford Professional for chicken because it burns hotter and faster which is good for short chicken cooks.

I wouldn't waste good Weber charcoal on a 1 hour cook, because Weber charcoal burns like a champ for longer cooks--much longer than KBB in my experience. Also, because Weber is harder to get to light well, I light it with a chimney of KBB whenever I use it for those long cooks.

Getting the fire well lit before the meat is added is so important for a chicken cook, so for me, 15-10-10 (or 20-10-10 however long it takes in the first step to get the topmost coals in the chimney to just begin to ash over) works best because I can tell that the fire is good and hot when I add the chicken.

I often cook 2 or 3 chickens (6 split halves) plus a couple of hanging racks of sausages in the PBC. For that I keep the lid cracked almost the whole time because of the chicken's tendency to make the fire burn unevenly.

So any time you're only doing whatever fits on one rebar, just leave the other one out and put the rebar you're using on the diagonal so you have more room to spread the meat out.

For more than 1 chicken I replace the rebars with thin stainless steel rods that I purchased at Lowe's. That way there is more air flow and the fire stays hotter.

For my PBC, any fire hotter than 350° will get the birds done in just over an hour, just the way we like them.

HTH,

Kathryn

[Greygoose]

Less ash also

[Jerod Broussard]

I just light, rebar removed and lid cracked or top vent adjusted. Once I get 400+ install rebar that is needed to hang, crack lid and/or adjust top vent. ***I installed a vent on the lid.

[jlo]

For chicken I always remove one rebar. I also use the Kingsford Professional as it runs hotter for chicken cooks. I don't do the timing thing at start up but I do let it get going (hotter) then say for wibs.

Will definitely try the Kingsford Pro. Thx

[HawkerXP]

For chicken I always remove one rebar. I also use the Kingsford Professional as it runs hotter for chicken cooks. I don't do the timing thing at start up but I do let it get going (hotter) then say for wibs.

[jlo]

Yes, you need HOT coals. That is one reason I run 400-ish with chicken in the Pit Barrel.

Thx Jerod. What should I do differently? 15-10-10? Should I crack the lid in addition to removing a rebar?