Well as y'all know, I've been blabbing my mouth for a bit about trying to lessen the charcoal taste in PBC cooks, especially with chicken as it drips juices (fat) down into the charcoal and that makes a strong smoke taste. Too much so for mine and the Mrs. tastes. In an effort to keep this from being a problem, I attempted to cook chicken today like I would on one of my Kegs. I wanted to cook it diffused to stop the radiant direct heat and also allow for use of a drip pan to catch the juices to prevent that unwanted smoke.
Did it work? Yes and No.
Here's the setup I used :
Pavers around the basket
Pizza stone on pavers, above basket
Oval Roasting Pan Bent To Fit and Foil Lined
I watched the temps via Tappecue and with this setup, the PBC ran at 250° on the nose after a slow climb. The result would be good for say a Boston Butt, but w/o that radiant heat and that low temp, my chicken skin stood NO CHANCE at crisping up.
Here is the shot of the chickadee at 135° Notice how it's lacking color and the some of the rub is still visible!
The PBC NEEDS the direct heat for chix, period. Unlike my Kegs, I can't get it to ccok right diffused, at least not at those lose temps. Taking out a rebar or cracking the lid may have helped here.
I ended up taking the chicken off and the rebar out then removing the pan and the stone and putting the chicken back in the regular way, attempting to salvage it. It was too late. Although the pictures may look good, the skin was rubbery and chewy. The meat inside was good and I can tell you that it was NOT nowhere near as strong as the last chicken I did (my first cook on the PBC).
No plated pics
I think that the next step might be to ditch the pizza stone and insert the grill grate with a drip pan on it. I don't know if there would be enough room to hang the chicken but that's the only thing that I can think of that might be a compromise between the two methods. Maybe another test is in order??
Stay crispy my friends.
