Sunday has turned into Shirley bonding time. Chicken and pork, each two ways

[toddrhodes]

Sunday during q-tine has become my day to throw a bunch of stuff on the offset. For one, I just love the cooking process. I've said it before, but I was not sure I was going to like the "hands on" effort an offset requires, having had pellets and WSM's and stuff in the past.

I will say that if I had to choose only one protein to cook on the Shirley, it would be chicken. It's just... perfect for me. Great flavor and the texture and juiciness is better than I've managed on other cookers before.

So today I made 2 leg quarters in "port-a-pit" style (regional thing), a whole spatchcocked bird for dinner, old-fashioned country style ribs and a couple chops. All but the whole bird are make-ahead meals.

Lineup

Mid cook

Chicken's done

Plate

And the inside of the chicken

I did try something new on this cook. I dry-brined and air-dried the whole bird in the fridge for three days. The skin was definitely more crisp than I've managed without really high heat to finish it, but it was still a bit too chewy. Not at all rubbery, but a little tough. No one minded, but I can definitely improve on that. The meat was very tasty, though.

Oh and for anyone who remembers my cole slaw thread - I definitely have nailed the sauce taste part. But I'm still working on getting it just a touch runny without it running all over the place. Apparently what you sauce with earlier on, is not how it's going to look in several hours. Always learning.

 

[Titch]

That Chook looks Glistening Juicy that last picture:thumb:

 

[sudsandswine]

Looks great to me :clap2: The lower grate right next to the fire box was my chicken cookin area on my Shirley. Whole birds came out great there, perfect skin and all. The radiant heat on the reverse flow plate worked great...Id do 75% of the cook skin side up then the last 25% of the cook skin down getting that radiant heat :thumb:

 

[toddrhodes]

Looks great to me :clap2: The lower grate right next to the fire box was my chicken cookin area on my Shirley. Whole birds came out great there, perfect skin and all. The radiant heat on the reverse flow plate worked great...Id do 75% of the cook skin side up then the last 25% of the cook skin down getting that radiant heat :thumb:

Interesting! On mine, that area is actually the coolest part of the grill, but I hadn't really given any thought to using the baffle plate how you describe. I'm down to try that. Thank you!

 

[fwdiii]

That chicken is a home run!!! Nice job!!

 

[sudsandswine]

Interesting! On mine, that area is actually the coolest part of the grill, but I hadn't really given any thought to using the baffle plate how you describe. I'm down to try that. Thank you!

Temperature wise it may have been one of the cooler parts in the cook chamber, the lower grate in general was, but something about that spot worked really well for chicken.