*****Official BBQ Thread - Suns out, Buns out!*****

Street said:
I did mechoui chicken legs with pan juice gravy on the Weber last night! Really loving the recipes from the Berber&Q book at the moment.
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That looks awesome! I used my jerk chicken marinade on the BBQ with the vortex on Saturday. It turned out really well, but one thing that I didn't consider was the lack of delicious gravy that you get by doing it in an oven dish. Might need to do the next lot on skillets!

Did you have the legs in the skillet the whole time?
 
Street said:
:D
How did it turn out? The joys of learning how to use a new toy! Happy 30th by the way! :)
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Here's a pic in nighttime glory, the whisps of thin smoke were a sight to behold, not well captured by my camera.
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The shoulder turned out fine in the end thanks, I'm pretty confident it was down to all those smallish pieces catching at once. Things calmed not too long after I posted, but the annoying thing was by 6.30am I was down to 215F due to a combination of fuel was getting low, because it burnt so fast to start, and I had things pretty closed up. 215 is no disaster though, and after a refuel (bit of a pain in the Joe but not the end of the world) and some vent tinkering she sat nicely in 230-250 range for the rest of the cook.

Pork shoulder turned out great, though a bit of the dry side. Probably due to the hot start, but a bit of BBQ sauce solved that, and it was as tender as you could want, so good result in the end.

I put 2 racks of St Louis on at 8am (guests arriving at 1pm) after the shoulder, and they were amazing. First time doing belly ribs instead of baby backs, and although the price difference is pretty big, I'm a convert. They were a highlight, here they are just after unwrapping for the final phase, so looking a bit saucy.

Once they were done and foiled to rest I also did some chicken skewers, burgers, sausages and corn on the cob over direct heat to round things off, all so easy to cook, great fun and very tasty.

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Sunday I had family round so did a lamb shoulder in more of a Sunday roast style. No smoking wood (not sure Granny is a fan of your usual smokey low n slow) and I aimed for 165F internal, so only had to give it about 4.5 hours. Which took the stress out of it hugely, just had to drop it on at 7am and it had loads of time to rest. Lamb shoulders aren't the easiest to carve, but it was nice and tender and so juicy, crazy amount of moisture and flavour in this joint. Rubbed with garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper.

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Bit of weather management.
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Finished lamb, doesn't do it justice really. Served with new potatoes, salad and something else I can't remember because I was too busy devouring this.

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Street said:
I did mechoui chicken legs with pan juice gravy on the Weber last night! Really loving the recipes from the Berber&Q book at the moment.
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That looks brilliant, what do you have in the sauce there? Did you cook on the grill at all or in the pan the whole time? I may have to invest in some cast iron!
 
tom_nieto said:
That looks awesome! I used my jerk chicken marinade on the BBQ with the vortex on Saturday. It turned out really well, but one thing that I didn't consider was the lack of delicious gravy that you get by doing it in an oven dish. Might need to do the next lot on skillets!

Did you have the legs in the skillet the whole time?
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dl8860 said:
That looks brilliant, what do you have in the sauce there? Did you cook on the grill at all or in the pan the whole time? I may have to invest in some cast iron!
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I marinated them in a mechoui butter overnight so cooked them in the pan as the butter melted with the chicken juices and formed the base for the gravy. When the legs were done, I took them out to rest, mixed some white wine in the pan with some flour, chicken stock, basil, garlic cloves, cumin and lemon juice/zest to make a gravy then put the legs back in to warm through.

My pans were only cheap ones from Amazon, but they've taken a hammering and lasted well. I paid £35 for the set years ago so I'm not bothered if they get trashed on the BBQ.
 
Those ribs look great!! Good job!!

I'm a big baby back fan but I do need to give St Louis style a go, particularly as my last attempt (see earlier posts) could be improved upon :) Be great to know how you did them, they really do look epic.
 
Street said:
I marinated them in a mechoui butter overnight so cooked them in the pan as the butter melted with the chicken juices and formed the base for the gravy. When the legs were done, I took them out to rest, mixed some white wine in the pan with some flour, chicken stock, basil, garlic cloves, cumin and lemon juice/zest to make a gravy then put the legs back in to warm through.

My pans were only cheap ones from Amazon, but they've taken a hammering and lasted well. I paid £35 for the set years ago so I'm not bothered if they get trashed on the BBQ.
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Do love a good chicken gravy, I'll have to give that a go!

tlrBeta said:
Those ribs look great!! Good job!!

I'm a big baby back fan but I do need to give St Louis style a go, particularly as my last attempt (see earlier posts) could be improved upon :) Be great to know how you did them, they really do look epic.
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At around 250F they had about 2.5 hours uncovered, with a standard pork rub, then about 2 hours 20 mins wrapped in foil with sauce, then another hour unwrapped and sauced again.

The second phase should have been shorter but I was busy, and I also am not sure if you should actually sauce at that point, because along with the slightly longer than intended cook time for that phase, they were a bit steamed after that - the rub was coming off a bit into the juices so the meat was a little bare in places.

Overall they were slightly towards the overdone side (due to the 'steaming'), one rack fell apart a bit when I picked it up with tongs towards one end, though it was a heavy rack! No after pictures, but they came off the bone so clean and were really tender without being at all mushy.
 
If anyone likes BBQ wings, I can highly recommend the Wingmans Chicken book! I've been working my way through the recipes and they've all been amazing. This weekend was satay wings. :)
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tlrBeta said:
Hi All,

Does someone mind linking me to the InkBird Dual Thermometer that's been mentioned a few times please?

Is it these? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inkbird-Bluetooth-Thermometer-Stainless-Waterproof/dp/B01MG7KLCI

My birthday is just around the corner and I'm being ask for ideas The range of my weber igrill mini is annoyingly poor.
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That's the one! :) No idea what the range is like on them though but they seem to get decent reviews.

I treated myself to a couple of BBQ T-bones for my birthday yesterday. :D

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Did a spatchcock chicken and some new potatoes on the Joe last night.

The chicken was fantastic, had to quarter it in the end to cook a bit faster as I probably did it a little too 'indirect' above the heat deflector, would leave the heat deflector out and just put it the other side from majority of coals next time.

Just chucking on the new potatoes was a bit of an experiment, tossed in olive oil and salt and pepper first and just threw them on for 45 mins, also semi indirect. I would say they worked well - great crispy outside but a little dry (?) on the inside. Perhaps need to spear and baste them or something, somehow need to get liquid in the equation.

One thing I would say about the Kamado that I'm not thrilled with, it does chomp through the charcoal when you are cooking above low n' slow temperatures. Cooked a load of homemade pizzas the other night for 4 plus 3 little ones (which were amazing, no time for pics!) at around 400F and my word it chewed through it. I also barely got through the 50ish minute cook last night at around 300-350F with a decent amount of coals.

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On another note, the pizza stone I used for those pizzas I mentioned broke mid cook. It was only 17 quid, but still quite annoying. It says safe to 300C (572F) and my dome thermom said no higher than 500F at any point. I had it sat atop the heat deflector with just shy of an inch clearance.

The instructions with the stone say to cook at 200C, though this isn't mentioned at all on the product listing.

Should I ask for a refund?

And does anyone have any suggestions for a good stone, I want one at least 35cm diameter which is big enough to make one large pizza for 2 to share for a meal, to save cooking in series. Best look at the ones safe up to 1000F now I suppose!

https://www.procook.co.uk/product/procook-pizza-stone-38cm-15in
 
dl8860 said:
One thing I would say about the Kamado that I'm not thrilled with, it does chomp through the charcoal when you are cooking above low n' slow temperatures. Cooked a load of homemade pizzas the other night for 4 plus 3 little ones (which were amazing, no time for pics!) at around 400F and my word it chewed through it. I also barely got through the 50ish minute cook last night at around 300-350F with a decent amount of coals.
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I thought the whole point of them was that they were really fuel efficient?
 
Street said:
I thought the whole point of them was that they were really fuel efficient?
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Me too! For low n' slow it's great, you have the bottom vent open like a pencil's width if that, and it smoulders away slow as heck with the ceramic retaining a tonne of temperature. I guess with more airflow, lumpwood is just always going to burn fast. I might see how I get on with briquettes for shorter hotter cooks, which is counter intuitive because they burn longer and not as fast, but I always found they worked well on my previous BBQ for those intermediate temperature things like a spatchcock chicken or leg of lamb.
 
@dl8860 I had the same issue on mine breaking 3 of the things at anywhere north of 275 they did not cope with any change in temperature well. I got a cast iron thing in the end and it has worked well so far. Like you I find once you whack the temps up for pizzas it chews through coal, however mine has been fairly efficient on normal 200-250c type cooks. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002K1DF9K/ref=pe_3187911_185740111_TE_item
 
Hi All,

Still learning as I go, so I have gone ahead and brought some Heat Beads Briquettes from the Range (4kg for £6.99). Given the weather planned for the few days ahead, why not ? :) Let's see how the heat performance goes and if it's worth the extra cost.

Turns out my local butcher does do Packer brisket (and has recently featured on @JakesFoodBible as his supplier). Looking at around £40, which is a pretty good price. I'm not sure I will pull the trigger just yet, I have a lot of meat to use up in the freezer, including another pork shoulder of the weekend with the beads. My plan is to likely use the beads when I do it, so I can comfortably leave it over night and not worry about temp.
 
Disclaimer, only being picky and I'm not a chef:

Headline is clickbaity
Seasoning chicken a whole day before seems overkill
Prescribing how to cook steak solely by 'direct heat' and a set amount of time is weird, would give completely different doneness for a thick steak and a thin steak.
Resting steak for 15 minutes seems too long. I would say 4-8.
A bit weird for the picture to have smoked sausage, brisket, ribs etc. and then only discuss burgers steak and chicken.
 
Fired up the Weber last night just for four burgers, a lot of faff but I love it :D

Four Wagyu patties, nice bit of Maillard reaction going on when over the coals, super super tasty!
 
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