Many thanks everyone for all the advice; your experience has made my first bird cook a success!
The day was cold and blustery, and the plan was to roast two chickens in the SRG along with baked potatoes and squash. Also in the plan is to smoke several cheeses and some kosher salt.
Chicken is spatchcocked, and ready to go on the heat. One bird is breast side down, and the other is breast side up. Both were liberally sprinkled with the sweet mesquite seasoning from Costco. IT=170F - overshot a bit but it was still delicious.
Potatoes were scrubbed, dried, oiled, and liberally sprinkled with kosher salt. Squash was oiled
Cheeses went into the Bradley, with pecan: kosher salt on paper plates-top rack, 2 goat cheese logs and a log of fresh mozzarella on the next, then a block of Swiss and two sharp white cheddar wedges, and another Swiss and 2 Gouda blocks on the bottom.
Because it is a cold and sometimes rainy day, into the gazebo go my babies. Now it's time to relax with a glass of wine and enjoy the aromas
The chicken looks great!
Here are the goodies - chicken looks perfect, as do the potatoes and squash
That potato looks good enough to eat - IT=210 (I tried for 200, but oh well, maybe next time)
Finished plates and wine. I substituted tomatoes Ahron for the squash my sweetie likes
Cheeses are done!
Smoked pecan salt. Although the salt took on lots of smoke color, the taste just was not there. Will need to find another method.
The upper 2 are goat cheese, and the sliced lower is fresh mozzarella.
At the end of the day...
- The chicken skin was crisp and delicious, the meat tender and juicy. This is a great way to cook chicken
- The tomatoes were topped with basil and dried in the residual heat of the pizza oven over night - thanks for that tip, Ahron!
- The Gouda and Swiss turned out perfect. The sharp white cheddar was a first for us, and was absolutely delicious on our first taste, and my sweetie wants me to keep one of the wedges to eat now (no ashtray taste with that baby). The goat cheese was absolutely scrumptious - if you like goat cheese at all, you'd love smoked goat cheese. We were a disappointed with the mozzarella - did not have a good texture, although the flavor was okay.
- We were disappointed with the smoked salt - even though it took on plenty of smoke color, the taste was so subtle as to almost not be there. We'll need to rethink this process.
- The potatoes were perfect - thick almost crisp salty skins and fluffy tender flesh.