Howdy all, been reading this forum for weeks, there was a mix up on my registration.
Anyway, the way I came to own an SRG is kinda funny. Bought a new home and was looking for a new barbeque to replace my Weber Q, not that there is anything wrong with the Q. So I saw this Char Broil Professional two burner model on Amazon, on sale for $199 with rave reviews, never had infrared before so why not try it. I had this grill in my saved list waiting to get something done on my patio. Then the day I decided to order it, the price had gone up to $329. Ouch! So I started googling to see if I could find a better deal and came upon the SRG, saw that it was infrared, could cook whole turkeys plus had a grill top. Googled some more and found this forum and saw that you guys were having way to much fun. So I bought one ($164 on Amazon prime) and here I am!
A word on Char Broil service. I unpacked the box and started to assemble. One of the first steps in the heat shield and the switches with gas regulator and hose. Try as I might, I could not get the nipple on the gas valve to go in the screened hole on the burner pipe. So I call Char Broil. first person was kinda clueless. started reading the instructions back to me, so I asked for someone who had actually assembled an SRG. A lady manager comes on, asked me a few questions and then said "either your burner pipe was not bent correctly of the gas valve is warped, so I am gonna FedEx overnight a new one of both." I said great, one more thing, when are you gonna start paying Tommy some royalties. Ha! Just kidding. Next day the parts arrived and it turned out the burner pipe was the culprit, So finally got the bad boy built. I thought that was pretty darn good service on their part.
So I coated the inside of the cooking chamber with peanut oil, turned it on high for 15 to season. Ready to go! 1st cook was a whole chicken, let it sit in the fridge for a couple hours (learned that here) then patted dry and coated with EVOO and put some Creole poultry spice on it. I also bought a Bayou Classic Poulty rack set so I preheated the SRG and then stuck the bird in the chamber. Had a metal thermometer in the bird and also used a thermopen to spot check. After an hour or so she was done, crispy golden brown skin (sorry no pics) and I proceeded to devour the wings and legs. Awesome!! Made some chicken alfredo pasta with the breast meat next day. Also awesome.
Next up will be a Boston Pork Butt (small one) I've read lots of threads on these and it seems pretty straightforward. Don't have any pellets yet so this one will probably be au natural. I post a new thread with pics when ready.
