I was tinkering with the Weber kettle last night, and I think I may have stumbled onto something awesome.
I set the grill up for indirect heat, with coals off to the sides and an indirect zone in the middle. I had an oven thermometer in the indirect zone and it stayed around 350 or so. My goal was to see if I could somehow get the indirect zone up to around 500 because I like using that temps for roasting whole chickens.
When the temps were stuck at 350, I tossed some small pieces of dry oak onto the coals and let them flame up and, whaddya know, the temp in the indirect zone jumped up to 500. The flames themselves weren't anywhere near the indirect zone, so I think that might work for high-heat chicken, as long as I occasionally add more wood.
Then I figured "A little bit of oak is hot, I bet MORE oak will be even hotter!" and tossed a couple more pieces of oak on. Temps pegged the oven thermometer at more than 600, so it was probably 700 or more. That got me thinking - the temps in the indirect zone are pretty much steakhouse oven temps. Couldn't I do steaks in that indirect zone? I think I'll have to try.
Anyway, thought I'd share and see if anyone else has had any experience doing something like this. Cheers!
I set the grill up for indirect heat, with coals off to the sides and an indirect zone in the middle. I had an oven thermometer in the indirect zone and it stayed around 350 or so. My goal was to see if I could somehow get the indirect zone up to around 500 because I like using that temps for roasting whole chickens.
When the temps were stuck at 350, I tossed some small pieces of dry oak onto the coals and let them flame up and, whaddya know, the temp in the indirect zone jumped up to 500. The flames themselves weren't anywhere near the indirect zone, so I think that might work for high-heat chicken, as long as I occasionally add more wood.
Then I figured "A little bit of oak is hot, I bet MORE oak will be even hotter!" and tossed a couple more pieces of oak on. Temps pegged the oven thermometer at more than 600, so it was probably 700 or more. That got me thinking - the temps in the indirect zone are pretty much steakhouse oven temps. Couldn't I do steaks in that indirect zone? I think I'll have to try.
Anyway, thought I'd share and see if anyone else has had any experience doing something like this. Cheers!