I'm new to the whole grilling thing and have yet to do a whole chicken. I've got one that's about 8 lbs that I want to cook on the Weber Performer with my new Slow 'N Sear. Was thinking of doing the pulled chicken. My question is, cook it whole? Halved? In pieces? Any other tips or suggestions?
-
-
I'd go with spatchcock. -
Spatched or halved.Comment
-
Spatchcocking is one good way, I do it all the time, but if you cook as pieces you have more control of the internal temperatures of the various pieces.Comment
-
Mouth is watering just thinking how good it’s going to be. I dry brine it then I would use Simon and Garfunkel rub then spatchcock cook it at 300 deg to 165 internalComment
-
As the gents before me said ... spatchcocked or halved.Comment
-
It will cook a bit faster if withe spatchcocked or cut in half. Don't forget to cook it hot - a minimum of 325*, and north of 350* works well for me.Comment
-
If you are going to just pull it the half or quarter it. If you are pulling it to make BBQ I would definitely use MMD instead of Simon and Garfunkel rub.
pro tip: get you a dedicated set of garden shears to cut your poultry with instead of cheap kitchen shears. I did this for turkey last year and now just exclusively use them when chopping birds.Comment
-
Of all my years of smoking and of all the tons of meat I have done chicken is something I rarely do. I need to change that. I certainly have never done a whole chicken but these threads always intrigue me to do so. I have done lots of turkey breasts with great results. It seems to me chicken would benefit from being placed vertically in the smoker. I'm not going to veer into the beer can chicken discussion but a device that holds them vertically without the beer can just seems to me that it would work. I've had this one in my amazon wish cart for sometime but just haven't moved it to the cart yet.
Comment
-
since i started reading this site i do whole chickens pretty much exclusively spatched, 2 zone with a slow and seer aiming for about 325 on the cool side. Dry brine with salt for a few hours if you have time, dont need to bother getting the salt under the skin ive found. Then get your rub/seasoning of choice on there (under the the skin for this) before hitting the grill.
Literally the best chicken i have ever had.Comment
-
Going to go with spatchcock. Ended up with two 5.5 pounders. I've got both in the fridge now with the dry brine. Going to use the Memphis dust. Think I'm going to go with 325 as the temp. I'll try to post pics of the finished product.Comment
-
-
Chicken was a success. Nice and juicy. Skin was crispy. Each bird was about 5.5 lbs and took about 1 hr 45 min to 2 hours. Only real issue was controlling the grill temp. It was my first time using the S&S. I followed their directions and used about half a chimney worth of charcoals. I was aiming for 325 but the temp just didn't want to get there. I had the vents wide open and even tried cracking open the lid. I don't think the breeze helped either. Ended up adding more charcoal once my temp kept dropping and that did the trick. Guess it just takes a lot of trial and error when your new to charcoal grilling!Attached FilesComment
-
-
I've had the same problem getting that 325-350 range locked in with the SnS. More charcoal works & sometimes it's the weather messing with you, but I think my problem was/is letting the coals burn too long in the chimney & not giving the grill enough time to get up to temp. The last couple times I've done chicken with the SnS I've tried to let the chimney burn for no more that 12-15 minutes and then given it 10 minutes or so to heat up the SnS and everything. That seems to work for me.Comment
Comment