tony b

Chicken thighs last night. Icelandic rub, direct, main grate, 350F with leftover wood chunks from the pork butt cook. They produced a LOT of smoke, as you can see in this picture. Plated with melting potatoes with the Shallot Crack Sauce! Got some nice crispy skin on the chicken!

Happens all the time with mine when I use the Guru. You correctly deduced what's going on. The fan is pushing more air in than can escape the top vent, so it needs to find a place to go. Not going to affect your cook or temperature control at all. The natural instinct is to open the top vent more to relieve the pressure, but you risk losing control of the temperature by allowing too much airflow when the fan isn't running, unless you really shut the exhaust damper on the fan almost closed. If you never plan to use the gas insert (I'm surprised that your KK came with one, as Dennis has pretty much stopped putting them on the newer grills, unless the owner requests one?), Dennis makes a replacement vent door that has threaded rods with wing nuts to secure the gas door closed. I got one for my 23" KK a while ago. I put LocTite on the threads to make sure that it doesn't loosen up. Has worked like a charm.

Funny how that happens! 😆

Keep us updated on how they perform for you on the KK?

They have now declared Wednesday's storm to be a Derecho. Mine survived a direct hit during the derecho of Aug 2010. Top half of a very tall tree fell next to my deck and the metal framed hop trellis collapsed on it, too. This is the "after" pic, when I cleared everything off of it and took the cover off to inspect it. Not a scratch.

An oldie, but a goodie!

Well, the good news was that we hit 73F yesterday - in Iowa - in the middle of December! But, the warm weather brought very severe winds that spawned t-storms and tornadoes. Lots of wind damage north of me and widespread power outages. While we had 50 - 60 mph winds here with our t-storm last night, it wasn't nearly as bad as the folks west and north that saw 80 - 90 mph winds - and the tornadoes! My power blinked a few times, but never went out. I'd planned ahead and had a pork butt ready for the unseasonably warm day. Overnight cook Tuesday. Finished up mid-morning Wednesday. Guru running at 250F, indirect, with smoker pot loaded with hickory and apple chunks. Followed Meatheat's advice and trimmed a lot of fat off and liberally salted it Monday night. He says that he likes this technique better than injecting (which had been my standard practice.) Tuesday morning it got the CYM treatment with 3 Eyz rub and Dizzy Pig Crossroads. Went on the KK at 10pm. Target was 203F, but pulled it off at 200F around 10am. It had gotten so windy by that point that the Guru controller kept getting blown over and coming unplugged. I didn't catch it in time and the fire went out. Once the KK started to drop in temp, no point in leaving the butt on the grill. I wrapped it in foil and put it in the cooler in the beach towel for 3 hours before I pulled it. And YES, there's pictures! Dinner was pulled pork sammies! Hard to say whether Meathead's technique worked better than injecting, but the results were just as good IMHO.

MacKenzie's suggestion is a good one for doing shawarma and similar styles of cooking. I think that I understand what you are contemplating? If you put the chicken thighs on short wooden skewer(s), you could put them in the basket and spin them. Worth a try.

@Cheesehead_Griller - I'm not sure why you'd want to use both? I don't know of any advantage of doing that? As MacKenzie said, each have their advantages. I use both myself.

Not taking the bait! 🤐

Looks very nice!

Followed several folks' suggestions here to make a batch of chili with leftover brisket from my last cook. This turned out to be the "meaty-ist" chili that I've ever made! And, of course, being REAL chili, there were no beans to be found anywhere in the vicinity!

@C6Bill Nailed it!

First, how long has it been in your brine? If more than a few days, you should take it out and rinse it, lest it will be too salty. Prep it with the yellow mustard and crush black pepper & coriander seed rub and let it set overnight. I'd cook it low and slow to at least 190F, then let it rest in a cooler for several hours. Not all the way done for a brisket, but done enough to be easily sliced. (I find that fully done briskets (203F) have a tendency to crumble when sliced.) Then all you have to do to serve is steam the slices until hot.

My opinion (I have a 23"), is to not use the foil deflector, as it kinda defeats the purpose of the rotisserie. I'd push most of the charcoal to the back of the basket, so the porchetta rotates in/out of the direct heat zone. In my 23", the charcoal basket is round, so with the splitter in it, I can easily go front or back or sideways.

I've not experienced any problems mixing charcoals before, including cocochar with regular lump. I've never cooked that many butts at once before, so I do not have a lot of advice. If you keep them on the same level, just don't crowd them too much to block airflow between them. If you put them on the main and upper grates they will cook at different rates, so just be careful to monitor at least one on each level. Otherwise, you sound good to go! Butts are seriously hard to mess up, so you're going to be fine!

Yep, the Shallot Sauce went very well with the sauteed green beans last night. It's a keeper!

Yep, Blues Hog is a nice line of products.

OK, a new "crack" to add to the ever-growing list! Bullhead Shallot Sauce! Think the Chili Crisp above, but without the chilies. Very savory! https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00AHPHGLO I was at an old friend's over Thanksgiving holiday and he turned me on to this one. He made an exquisite gravy with it for our Beef Wellington dinner. So, naturally I went straight to Amazon and ordered a can (it's much more economical than the wimpy little jar.) I'm still experimenting with it - I've done the gravy (excellent) and put some in sauteed mushrooms (very nice). Thinking it would make a nice vinaigrette dressing. Planning on adding some to my sauteed green beans for dinner tonight.

Well, one step forward, multiple steps backwards! With the big-ass brisket out of the freezer, I did a deep dive to see what’s in the bottom. Damn! 3 full pork shoulders and a ½ pork shoulder roast AND another full packer cut brisket (at least this one is Prime!) I guess that I was a shopping fool at some point! 😆

Unfortunately, there are no Academy Sports in Iowa, yet. Win some, lose some!

Alton Brown did a video cooking a steak underneath a charcoal chimney full of red, hot coals. The trick was to shake the chimney to get all the loose ash off before putting the steak underneath it. I was a bit leary of it, so the 1 time that I tried it, I put the steak on a grate on top of the chimney on the lower grate of the KK. Worked OK for getting a nice sear, post Sous Vide.

We're having a short run of unseasonably warm weather (upper 50s) and I took advantage to reclaim valuable real estate in my chest freezer by finally cooking this full packer cut brisket that I bought on sale back in September ($1.98/lb). Simple, straightforward cook - 250F with the Guru (it was an overnighter), with the smoker pot full of post oak, mesquite, hickory and apple wood chunks. Indirect with AL foil on the lower grate. Simple rub of Lane's Brisket rub with CYM slather. Was a 14 hour cook - I screwed up and didn't take it out of the freezer in time to fully thaw, so it was still frozen in the middle (37F) when it went on the KK @ 5pm. Had to get up @ 3am to wrap it in the pink butcher paper when it cleared the stall (173F) and slather on the Wagyu beef tallow (needed, as this was just a "choice" grade brisket - hence, the cheap price.) Finished @ 6am at 203F. Cut off the point and cubed it for burnt ends, which went back on the KK for 45 minutes. Rested the flat for 5 hours before slicing. And YES, there's pictures! The smaller piece of protein was a pre-marinated pork tenderloin (apple bourbon) that I did for dinner. It's gonna be a while before I do one of these again! I'm sticking to pot roasts from now on - a much simpler cook and not as much BBQ to put up in the freezer.

Where do you buy it, @Poochie?

Yes, I've used it. As noted, not exactly the same as KK extruded cocochar, closer to binchotan for yakitori grills, but a nice hot, long-burning charcoal. Available via Amazon. https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00R8HILG8