Weber gasser vs SNS kettle Chook-off

[DaveD]

Hey folks, today I'm wrapping up my lovely bride's Birthday Weekend (tm) with what I hope will be a winner winner chicken dinner. Took a whole bird, spatchcocked & cut in two, and am cooking one on the Weber gas grill and the other on the SNS kettle, both set up for 2-zone with somewhere around 300F/150C on the indirect side. Dry brined the pieces about six hours prior, and hit it with my house poultry rub, Fowl Play, half an hour before going on. We'll just share and share alike tableside in order to compare the two.

On the SNS, I dumped in half a chimney of lit coals on top of the remnants of yesterday's tri tip cook and battened down the appropriate hatches to hit the target. I'm slowly getting a little better at it Put a small chunk of apple wood on the coals because why not?

Temps are about 115F/46C in the breasts, and plan to pull at 160 or a little less and then sear to put some crispy on the skin. Everything nominal thus far...


Going on. Had a line of t-storms go through as I was firing up, but smooth sailing after that.


30 minutes in, starting to take on some color. Temps in low 90sF/low 30sC.



More later...

[DaveD]

And after about an hour, still nominal. Flipped them over, so here's the before & afters.






Got some rice in the rice cooker, and some weird mutant organic string beans in the veggie steamer for the sides. Home stretch! After-action will be next.

[WayneT]

That’s all coming together for y’all Dave. I’m sure your wife will be uber pleased. What a great way to celebrate her.

[DaveD]

Winner winner chicken dinner! Both pieces were excellent. The one on the gas grill hit 166F/74C max, whereas the one on the kettle topped out at 170F/77C. Total time before searing was about 90 minutes, and it took no more than 10 to finish them off. They rested on the counter uncovered while I got my sides together and had drifted down to the low 150sF/mid 60sC by the time they went on the plate.

We just cut and shared every other bite as we worked our way through, and that did the job. The piece on the gas grill was noticeably juicier, but the kettle piece had the edge on flavor from the bit of smoke even in this short cook. Both were outstanding and delicious. I'll say that I'd be unlikely to do half-birds on the kettle when the results on the gas grill are this close. Might be other chicken vectors to try of course.

Now I need a break after this weekend! I'm knackered.

Searing on the respective rigs:









And plated with the gas grill piece:

I let my lovely bride loose before I got a shot of the kettle piece:


A fitting finale to the weekend

[Allon]

Winner winner is right…says I

[Clawbear57]

Great looking birthday meal.I know that it taste as good as it looks.

[jfmorris]

Nice cook!

I’ll be honest and say I have done many many split chickens on my Genesis with Grillgrates. I don’t even go indirect - I just run medium heat on the Grillgrates, and flip a couple of times. Been a while but I need to give the gasser some love…