I've been developing a case of GAS ever since I joined this club. I went and bought myself a Vortex for my 22" Weber Master-Touch. I've used it twice now, and I am hooked. It's worth every penny I paid for it. The first time was chicken wings, tonight it was chicken thighs. I used the same setup both times: full chimney of fully lit Kingsford Professional in the Vortex, chunk of wood on the grate over the Vortex, top and bottom vents wide open, and the dome temp sticking between 500-550F. Both times the results have been crispy and succulent, and have disappeared with no leftovers. I think I owe it all to the Serious Eats recipe for "The Best Oven-Fried Chicken Wings".
Operating on the understanding that the Vortex basically turns my kettle into a convection oven, I decided to use this recipe as a starting point. It calls for dry brining the wings in a mixture of 50-50 kosher salt and baking powder before cooking, so I did that for about 16 hours each time. For the wings, it took about 35 minutes for them to be perfectly crisped on the outside, and I didn't even have to flip them. Once they were done, half went into a traditional Buffalo sauce and half went into a garlic parmesan butter sauce. I made eight pounds of wings for six teenagers. Gone. Kids circling the back porch looking for more before they would believe me when I told them that I didn't have another batch on the grill.
For the thighs tonight, I experimented a little. I used the same ratio of meat (1 lb) to salt (5g) to baking powder (5g), but I added a half-part each of garlic powder and black pepper. For 12 lb of thighs, that became 60g salt, 60g baking powder, 30g garlic, and 30 g pepper. I also made a batch of white sauce from the "Big Bob's" recipe on the free side. In 45 minutes, the thighs hit an IT of 190F and the skin was beautifully brown and ASMR-scrape-your-knife-on-it crispy. They tasted great. I think I would leave off the garlic and pepper from the dry brine if I make the white sauce again, because that ended up being kind of a double-dose of those spices, but all in all the results were pretty damned good. 24 thighs, six teenagers, two adults, and nothing left.
I don't think I'll grill chicken wings or dark meat any other way from now on. It's too easy and too good with this combo of the Vortex and the dry brining.
Do any of you have never-fail recipes or techniques for chicken the Vortex?
Operating on the understanding that the Vortex basically turns my kettle into a convection oven, I decided to use this recipe as a starting point. It calls for dry brining the wings in a mixture of 50-50 kosher salt and baking powder before cooking, so I did that for about 16 hours each time. For the wings, it took about 35 minutes for them to be perfectly crisped on the outside, and I didn't even have to flip them. Once they were done, half went into a traditional Buffalo sauce and half went into a garlic parmesan butter sauce. I made eight pounds of wings for six teenagers. Gone. Kids circling the back porch looking for more before they would believe me when I told them that I didn't have another batch on the grill.
For the thighs tonight, I experimented a little. I used the same ratio of meat (1 lb) to salt (5g) to baking powder (5g), but I added a half-part each of garlic powder and black pepper. For 12 lb of thighs, that became 60g salt, 60g baking powder, 30g garlic, and 30 g pepper. I also made a batch of white sauce from the "Big Bob's" recipe on the free side. In 45 minutes, the thighs hit an IT of 190F and the skin was beautifully brown and ASMR-scrape-your-knife-on-it crispy. They tasted great. I think I would leave off the garlic and pepper from the dry brine if I make the white sauce again, because that ended up being kind of a double-dose of those spices, but all in all the results were pretty damned good. 24 thighs, six teenagers, two adults, and nothing left.
I don't think I'll grill chicken wings or dark meat any other way from now on. It's too easy and too good with this combo of the Vortex and the dry brining.
Do any of you have never-fail recipes or techniques for chicken the Vortex?
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