by KamadoSimon » 03 Jul 2012, 07:35
Re: Naked Whiz's tests.
The best chicken cooks for me so far on the Kamdao Joe have been:
- spatchcocked direct grilling - very moist & great skin due to the high heat. So agree with him on this one;
- indirect - best for moistness but not as successful for crispy skin. Determined to get this right though! I think I am not leaving the chicken uncovered in the fridge for long enough still. Going to try 48 hours next time.
I did a whole chicken last night on a wireframed vertical chicken holder which in turn was sat in a roasting tin with liquid (just water) in it. I found no difference in moistness from cooking it sitting normally indirect. OK not a side by side comparison but I've done a fair few chickens now to compare & this did not stand out for me in terms of extra moistness.
I've tried adding flavour via the liquid under the meat being something other than water (e.g. cider, beer etc) and never found any transfer of flavour. So tend to agree with NW there too.
But the area I disagree with him on is around the liquid boiling or not. If you place the liquid in a roasting pan, the vertical holder inside that & then place the whole thing on the grill, the liquid always boils for me. I guess the extra surface area of the metal pan means it heats the liquid more efficiently & thus boils it. Still didn't get any transfer of flavour though.
So for me, I'll use a vertical chicken holder on the grill, but only if I need the space to get other things on the grill at the same time i.e. for no moistness or flavour reasons.
Brining, on the other hand, I have found to be successful in adding flavour to the meat.