Help for rotisserie chicken?! [Cooking]
2007 Jun 21
I haven't done rotisserie on a BBQ, but I understand the principles and do cook a mean beer-can chicken. Here are some points and recommendations that come to mind:
* Rotisserie is self-basting (i.e. the fat drips downward but as the bird turns, it gets thoroughly coated) so you should get a nice moist, evenly cooked result.
* A herb mixture under the skin might be nice, but personally I'd do a dry rub under the skin *and* on the outside. You can look up a recipe on the internet, or just get yourself a shaker of Montreal Chicken Spice -- it's actually really good (be generous with it). Put some rosemary inside like zymurgist suggests -- it can only help. I'd also salt and pepper the inside cavity. If you are entertaining guests rather than counting calories, the addition of butter can't hurt.
* If you really want to use a basting sauce, be sure to brush it on right near the end of cooking. That way the skin gets a chance to crisp first and the sauce (often high in sugar) won't burn.
* With beer-can chicken, I use indirect heat and keep the lid closed. I'd imagine rotisserie is more forgiving, since the bird is constantly turning and doesn't get continuous heat exposure. Low, direct heat is probably best.
* If you keep the lid closed as much as possible, I'd expect your chickens to be cooked in about an hour. It's worth opening the lid to see how they're doing though, even if it extends the cooking time.
* As long as you don't overcook them, you can't fail! Serve drinks to your guests while they wait and they won't care how long it takes. :-)
* I'm guessing you should truss the chicken to avoid having the limbs flop all over the place and get burned.
* Rotisserie is self-basting (i.e. the fat drips downward but as the bird turns, it gets thoroughly coated) so you should get a nice moist, evenly cooked result.
* A herb mixture under the skin might be nice, but personally I'd do a dry rub under the skin *and* on the outside. You can look up a recipe on the internet, or just get yourself a shaker of Montreal Chicken Spice -- it's actually really good (be generous with it). Put some rosemary inside like zymurgist suggests -- it can only help. I'd also salt and pepper the inside cavity. If you are entertaining guests rather than counting calories, the addition of butter can't hurt.
* If you really want to use a basting sauce, be sure to brush it on right near the end of cooking. That way the skin gets a chance to crisp first and the sauce (often high in sugar) won't burn.
* With beer-can chicken, I use indirect heat and keep the lid closed. I'd imagine rotisserie is more forgiving, since the bird is constantly turning and doesn't get continuous heat exposure. Low, direct heat is probably best.
* If you keep the lid closed as much as possible, I'd expect your chickens to be cooked in about an hour. It's worth opening the lid to see how they're doing though, even if it extends the cooking time.
* As long as you don't overcook them, you can't fail! Serve drinks to your guests while they wait and they won't care how long it takes. :-)
* I'm guessing you should truss the chicken to avoid having the limbs flop all over the place and get burned.
2007 Jun 22
Thank you to both of you!
We love rosemary, so we will follow that lead, butter and all. I happened to find a recipe on Epicurious www.epicurious.com which is from the Bon Appetit sitting on my counter. (duh)
FF,
Beer can chicken? I have heard of it but never tried it, have you already shared your recipe? Maybe we will try that next time.
I'll let you know how we did.
Cheers!
We love rosemary, so we will follow that lead, butter and all. I happened to find a recipe on Epicurious www.epicurious.com which is from the Bon Appetit sitting on my counter. (duh)
FF,
Beer can chicken? I have heard of it but never tried it, have you already shared your recipe? Maybe we will try that next time.
I'll let you know how we did.
Cheers!
2007 Jun 26
Sorry this is too late TNT, but I thought I'd add my 2 cents, perhaps for next time you do this. I cook chicken fairly regularly on the bbq rotisserie and here is what I do:
1. Brine the birds. Submerged in water, with 1 cup salt in water. (For 3 birds I might use 1.5 or 2 cups salt). Do this for a couple hours before cooking. This makes them slightly more moist/firm, and adds a delicious salty touch to the bird. (Also a neccessity to make it kosher, if you're needing that)
2. I use a dry-rub Morrocan Ras el Hanout on the outside of the bird.. very tasty.
3. When bird is almost done, I start pricking the skin with the tip of a knife to drain the fat. The fat will accumulate under the skin, and although this makes for the most moist bird, it makes for 'not crispy' skin. Keep in mind here, I cook with a rotisserie burner on my BBQ (burner is behind the bird, not underneath it), so if you are using normal burners, you might not have to do this last step. After draining the fat, I then turn off the rotisserie burner, and turn on the bottom burners on HIGH, for about 5 minutes (or more) to crisp up the skin. Important at this time to watch for flare-ups that might lend a little too much carbon to the feast.
Hope your dinner turned out great!
1. Brine the birds. Submerged in water, with 1 cup salt in water. (For 3 birds I might use 1.5 or 2 cups salt). Do this for a couple hours before cooking. This makes them slightly more moist/firm, and adds a delicious salty touch to the bird. (Also a neccessity to make it kosher, if you're needing that)
2. I use a dry-rub Morrocan Ras el Hanout on the outside of the bird.. very tasty.
3. When bird is almost done, I start pricking the skin with the tip of a knife to drain the fat. The fat will accumulate under the skin, and although this makes for the most moist bird, it makes for 'not crispy' skin. Keep in mind here, I cook with a rotisserie burner on my BBQ (burner is behind the bird, not underneath it), so if you are using normal burners, you might not have to do this last step. After draining the fat, I then turn off the rotisserie burner, and turn on the bottom burners on HIGH, for about 5 minutes (or more) to crisp up the skin. Important at this time to watch for flare-ups that might lend a little too much carbon to the feast.
Hope your dinner turned out great!
2007 Jun 27
I make my own! I use the recipe for it that is contained within a B'stilla recipe here ( www.epicurious.com ) on epicurious web site. There are others there, but I've never tried them. I find one of the secrets is to use cardamom still in the seed pod (and manually extract them) as this gives the freshest flavour!
2007 Jul 26
Thank you to everyone for their tips... Pete, I am looking forward to trying the rub... I dry brined the chickens the night before, which worked well. I didn't know about the pricking of the skin thing! We decided to crank up the heat and just crisp the birds for a few minutes, (yes we had been drinking), luckily it worked and the skin crisped nicely!
We ended up having too many chickens for the rotisserie - it would only hold two - so we did the third chicken in the convection oven. It was finished first and had a nice crisp skin! I wish I had taken a photo! (see drinking note above)
Thanks again!
We ended up having too many chickens for the rotisserie - it would only hold two - so we did the third chicken in the convection oven. It was finished first and had a nice crisp skin! I wish I had taken a photo! (see drinking note above)
Thanks again!
tnt
We are planning to cook some chickens on a rotisserie (in a BBQ) Saturday night. Does anyone have any tips? Should I put a butter & herb mixture under the skin? Should we put sauce on them? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
They are approx. 3lb organic chickens and I think we are going to try to fit three on the rotisserie (its a big BBQ). Any suggestions on cooking time?
I feel crazy trying this for the first time with guests! (normally I test run my madness before I subject others to it)
Thanks in advance for any suggestions/ideas/tips!
Cheers