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Sear Then Bake

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This was a very brief discussion between myself and Aussie Joe (Guru member)

The idea is to start a hot bed of coals and do a quick sear before a ceramic kamado gets heat soaked. After the Sear you can then dial in a temp and let it heat soak for the final cook. This should work for any ceramic kamado.

Tonight I decided to do a practical application of this idea to demonstrate it.

Fired up a bed of lump. A quick sear on a few pieces of chicken using the lower grate. (just a light sear as they will finish cooking in the bake phase)

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Once the Sear was done I pulled out the lower grate then installed the diffuser.

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Next I installed the main grate.

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Closed the dome and set both vents for 350*. Gave it about 20 minutes and it parked right where I wanted it to and was fairly well heat soaked at that temperature. Ready for the baking phase.

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Dinner baking at 350*. Grilled Chicken Alfredo Casserole.

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A really good/easy procedure that has many applications. You just need to know your vent settings.

Charles - Prometheus 16.5", Cassiopeia 19" TT

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That’s a really interesting technique. How low of a target temperature do you think you could achieve with this method? 300ºF? 250ºF?

I'm confident I could have stopped at 300* and possibly even 250*. In the Sear phase I kept the upper vent at 4 turns so not much heat got trapped in the KK. The faster you get the Sear accomplished the better chance of a lower final temp.

When I added the diffuser and closed the dome I set my vents to a setting I knew would get me 350*. I then just waited it out while the temp rose and settled right at 350*. I gave it a little while longer to make sure it was fairly well heat soaked at 350*. I hit the vent settings spot on because I never had to readjust after that initial setting.

This actually worked really well and would probably work even better on a bigger KK. Maybe over the Thanksgiving weekend I'll try and do this procedure on some type of roast and see if I can park it at 250* for a final Low-n-slow phase.

Charles - Prometheus 16.5", Cassiopeia 19" TT

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A different spin, when you want to get a good sear without letting the grill get too hot; use a charcoal chimney.

Light a chimney full of lump, do your sear over the chimney, and then dump it into the lump basket. Just set the sear grate right in top of the chimney. I use this technique when I make pot roast in the KK. I do the searing in a cast iron pot over the chimney, then dump whatever is left of the chimney in the grill, set the vents and let it go to town at 300.

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A different spin, when you want to get a good sear without letting the grill get too hot; use a charcoal chimney.

Light a chimney full of lump, do your sear over the chimney, and then dump it into the lump basket. Just set the sear grate right in top of the chimney. I use this technique when I make pot roast in the KK. I do the searing in a cast iron pot over the chimney, then dump whatever is left of the chimney in the grill, set the vents and let it go to town at 300.

Nice technique. I thought about that but alas I don't own a chimney.

Charles - Prometheus 16.5", Cassiopeia 19" TT

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