WSMs are great

I went to a cookout for the 4th, so I didn't have to smoke any foods for the holiday. But, it felt so un-American ;-), not firing up the grill or smoker, so I bought some chicken and sausage to cook today. Usually I cook chicken and sausage on my Weber kettle, but I decided to cook on my WSM today.

I removed the water pan and cooked on the top level grate. This kept the meat pretty far from the flames and at a low temperature to let the meat slowly cook. When I usually cook on my kettle, I am usually moving the meat around quickly to prevent it from burning or cooking it indirect. Cooking it this way today, allowed me to mow my yard while the meat was cooking. When I finished mowing the front, I flipped the meat and continued mowing the backyard. After finishing the backyard, I sauced the meat and let it continue for about 5 more minutes.

This will now be my preferred way to cook chicken. None of the chicken got burned or dryed out. Keep in mind, I could accomplish this on my kettle, but I am always so busy trying to multitask that I end up slightly burning a few pieces of meat. This works out good for people like me that don't like to sit and watch the grill.

Memorial Day preparation

I decided to do a pre-cook to get ready for Memorial Day. Actually, I was going to cook anyway, but this gave me an excuse to spend some extra money on some spareribs.
I smoked them with hickory for about 3.5 hours. They turned out good, but just a tad tough. I should have smoked them a little longer or perhaps foiled them to get them a little more tender.

I also decided to use a 12 inch clay saucer in my WSM instead of water in the water pan. Supposedly this is more efficient on the charcoal and eases cleanup. I don't think I will do that again. I found it pretty hard to keep the cooker around 250. It kept wanting to get to 300. The little bit of money saved on charcoal isn't worth it since I only smoke foods ~once a month. I'm probably just going to use the water pan w/o foil from now on just to simplify things.

Also, this week, I decided to make some firestarters. I used paraffin wax and shreaded paper in an egg carton. They work well, but for me, they're not worth the effort when I can get the starter cubes for about $4.

Last thing for today. I actually discovered this tip on another site (http://www.bluesmoke-bbq.com/006chicken/washing_chicken.php), so I really can't take credit for it, but I thought it was such a great idea that I am doing it now. When you're going to cook any meat, its always good to wash it off to remove bone particles and etc from it. So, on this site, this guy suggests using a vinegar and water bath to accomplish this. Just mix the vinegar and water in a bowl and give the meat a bath. According to the site, this will clean, disinfect, and tenderize the meat. I'm convinced. I saw how dirty the water was after I finished rinsing some chicken. Yuck, I was actually eating that stuff!! He uses a good quote on his site to convince you to use the vinegar bath. It is "A good food poisoning can ruin more than just your reputation as a Pit Master... ". That alone was enough to convince me.

Dinner

Came home from work today and just felt like cooking on the grill. The weather was nice and I had plenty of sunlight. Decided to do some steaks, chicken, and corn. I used Magic Dust on the steaks and Weber's Kicken Chicken on the chicken. All tasted great.

Finally got a smoker

I finally purchased a smoker. I decided to get a Weber Smokey Mountain. It is a water smoker that has enough capacity for what I normally do, a decent price, and has a great support website. Below, you will see a picture of it and some whole chickens that I smoked on it.

In the previous post, I mentioned a BBQ book that I have. I decided to try one of the recipes for some baked beans. I actually made them twice. The first time, I bought dried beans and didn't cook them long enough. The second time, as the picture shows, I used canned beans and they came out pretty good. This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Good BBQ book

A few weeks ago, my family went out of town. One night in the hotel, I watched a show that was all about barbecue. It highlighted a man named Mike Mills aka "The Legend" who has a restaurant in Illinois. He has won many cookoffs and is well known in that circle. He has written a book called Peace, Love, and BBQ. So, I decided to buy it. I must say that it is one of the best books that I have read in a while. Its written in a way that he is telling a story about himself, how he started barbecuing and how it has affected his life. Along the way, he includes many recipes. It's a good book and is hard to put down once you start reading it. I would put this one as the best BBQ book that I have read since most are simply a book full of pictures and recipes.

Weber Kettle Tips

I grilled some chicken breasts for fajitas this weekend. Turned out pretty good. Since it was just plain 'ol chicken, I took no pictures. However, I did make some markings on my grill that may be of use to someone out there. This is a tip that I picked up at the Virtual Weber Bullet site. You can control the air-flow to the grill on the kettle through the bottom vent settings. However, you can only tell when it is fully open or fully closed. So, I visually inspected it and added markings to determine when the bottom air vents were 50%. This provides just a little more control over the air-flow and heat.

Markings that I made on the grill.


A view of the bottom air vents at 100% open.

Cooked a whole chicken

Decided to put a whole chicken on the grill. First I rinsed the chicken and covered it all over with kosher salt. Then I let it sit in the fridge for about 3 hours. By the way, I learned this from Jamie Purviance in one of his Weber cookbooks. After sitting in the fridge to cure, I rinsed the bird again and put it on the grill indirect. I setup the grill to have two heat zones (coals on one side) and hickory wood chunks. Left it on there for about 2 hours and pulled it. Let it sit for about 30 minutes and then sliced it up. I think it was one of my best. Why? Probably b/c I didn't do anything special to it like trying to cover it with sauce, marinade it, etc. I'll definitely do this again.