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The delivery people called me and told me they would bring my KK 32" between 10 and 2 the next day. Guess what they showed up at 8:30 the next morning and I wasn't at home. But luckily I have a camera on my front porch and it notified me that somebody was at the front door my house so I was able to catch them before they pulled out of the track homes I live in. So it's in the garage still on the pallet but unboxed and all the accessories are all over the the place. Now I just had to get somebody to help me get it off the pallet down the ramp and into my garage. I can't believe how beautiful this thing is. You guys were right all along pictures don't do them justice.

He also soaks his wood chips. Rob

Wait until they all start croaking.:)

I love his books, but to be frank, I was disappointed that he propagates some BBQ myths in the show. Example, "the smoke ring is a sign that you nailed it." We all know that the smoke ring has nothing to do with tasty BBQ, it's just a chemical reaction that happens under the proper conditions; it's doesn't affect flavor one bit!

At grilling temps, EVOO is too delicate and will burn, which is probably your source of off flavors. Stick to canola or other high temp oils.

I'm in the "baking powder camp" now, myself. Rub the chicken thoroughly with salt and baking powder, rest overnight in the fridge, uncovered. Nice crispy skin when roasted. One thing though, back off the salt in your dry rub or you could end up with it being too salty at the end.

Poor Ken!

Today was the day I finally did a pizza cook. Toppings KK pepperoni, mushrooms and Thai hot peppers. Baked on the KK at 525F for 8-10 mins. Baked and sliced.

How much water wood can soak up is dependent on the size of the piece of wood, and the amount of time exposed to water. Small wood chips like the ones in SR’s video will take on a decent amount of water after 30-60 minutes. A chunk of wood the size of your fist or so wouldn’t take on an appreciable amount of water if soaked. It’s easy to test this. Grab some wood chips, soak half of them for 30-60 minutes, and then throw all of them on a low burning fire, like what you would use for a low and slow cook. The wet ones will take longer to burn. The difference would be smaller on a hot fire for cooking steaks or burgers, but that’s not the type of fire you would add smoking wood to. I do woodworking as a hobby, and for initial milling of lumber for projects, I have the opposite issue: I’m trying to make sure the wood is dry. The thicker the piece of wood, the longer it will take for it to reach equilibrium. It’s like soaking wood chips, but in reverse. Now whether you want to use wood chips as opposed to larger pieces of wood for smoking, that’s another issue entirely.

So, if you get a piece of wood small enough, it'll actually start to soak up water? Rob

True, but anything that jazzes up the presentation makes for a better eating experience. I took his statement about the smoke ring more in the context of the overall experience, not just taste. And the smoke ring makes for great video, as I mentioned above. Given how small those chips were, I can see the benefit of soaking them. Larger chunks of wood won’t need that treatment, however.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Although I’m a little embarrassed to be included since as far as I can tell, I have the least amount of BBQ experience out of everyone here by far. I never did a low and slow BBQ cook until I got Smaug less than two years ago. And although a lot of people disagree with me on this, I have to give a lot of credit to Dennis and his KK grills for allowing me to get results as good as I have gotten right out of the gate. Just a word in defense of Steven Raichlen: what works well or is best practice in a live cooking or restaurant kitchen setting may not, and often does not work well on video. For example, if you’re chopping an onion in a restaurant kitchen, the priorities are speed and making sure you chop the onions to the proper and consistent size for the next step in making the dish. For video, the priorities are a good looking video segment, and transmitting information to the viewer as to what the steps in making the cuts for chopping an onion are. If you blow through chopping an onion at restaurant kitchen speeds, and filmed that, the average viewer may have no idea what just happened. I’m not a SR fanboy, either. The Project Smoke episode just released was the first time I’ve seen any of his videos. I watched the first episode of this season, and plan to continue, more for getting ideas on recipes and flavor combinations as opposed to grilling techniques.

THANK YOU @CeramicChef you are too kind. You forgot to add yourself to the list.

TY@CeramicChef you are very kind in your remarks. But I do basically agree with your statement. I only visit this forum and one other. There are seriously good looking meals posted on a regular basis. What's great is we take inspiration from each other putting our own twist on it. Looking at the two forums on a daily basis makes me crave a fancy meal every night. Unfortunately my work schedule just doesn't allow that but I still cook on the KK's almost every night. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

@CeramicChef there's definitely some great food posted here - and as I have said before, that was one of my main reasons for actually buying a KK. If I might be permitted a small disagreement, though, I have seen APL cook many times in a live kitchen, and the man has MOVES. Seriously. There is no comparison between him and SR.

You could use a garbage bag over a wood form. Think fish pond liner.

I've watched Raichlen, Adam Perry Lang, et al and at the end of the day, I'd put cooks showcased here up against anything the big named guys put out. Take a look at what @tinyfish, @ckreef, @MacKenzie, @wilburpan, etc. post here and you figure out quite quickly there are folks here putting food on the table for their families every single day that can easily hang with the big boys. Even more amazing to me is that our folks here don't have professional staff, professional kitchens, professional food stylists, etc. Our KK Chefs here just do it day in and day out. Congrats and Kudos to all here for all your largely unrecognized efforts!

Charles, if you only knew the half of it! About 9 months after that incident, I bought my freedom, and my cajones, back. It wasn't pretty an d I was expensive! Not to offend that Distaff Half here, but to the guys … Do you know why divorce is so expensive? Because it is SOOOO worth it! To anyone here who is married, you and your spouse have my undying admiration. I've been a success at most things, but I just can't figure out this marriage thing. Oh well, at least I can cook, clean, sew buttons, iron and do laundry.

Divorce by hair dryer - LOL . CC you set new low standards - j/k buddy Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Absolutely agree with that, even regular OO doesn't work for high heat. . EVOO is really only good for a cold oil or a finishing oil. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Every time I've done it I used 50/50 flour/cornstarch. I also sprayed it down with oil. . Never really happy with the results so I rarely do it anymore. . Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

As long as I can still eat the results!! Rob

Have had similar experience with cornstarch dusted chicken - came out pale. So, I'd have to agree with the others. Another thought would be to spray some canola oil on the chicken just before you put it in the KK. Aren't cooking experiments fun (and frustrating at the same time!)?

It's up!