The Big Green Egg is a BAD ASS piece of Equipment
I recently added to my bbq arsenal the Big Green Egg after I read an article about it. I have a few friends that have them and swear by them. One family being the Huevos Ranchero people…The Hesters. So my buddy Dave and I set off on a quest to learn about them at a dealer. An hour later, Dave and I were both owners of the Japanese old technology, reinvented as the Big Green Egg. So what do you cook on the first trial run, the maiden voyage?? I had to roll with the chicken y’all. I have made them several different ways from the Traeger, to the water smoker and have reached my potential…so I thought.
I went with the large edition, had them put the high heat-resistant acrylic on the sides instead of the wood. When you buy one of these bad boys, you will quickly learn that everything is sold separately. The “nest” is below and has wheels on it, I do not understand why anyone would want one with out it, because you can hardly move the damn thing. I almost broke my back wheeling it to my back yard. The Green Egg is one heavy son of a #$@! at 250 lbs. Make sure to pay the 25 bucks to have them put it together! Thank me later. But here he is, a member of the bbq family in my back yard.
At this point, you should go get your Green Egg started. It’s very easy to use, you add the special charcoal, this is the non treated wood stuff. You can buy it from Green Egg or Cash and Carry. Add enough to get above the air holes, add the fire block they recommend and start it with the lid open. You never use regular charcoal, or lighter fluid. Once the flame is going you want to put your damper on, open it up and below there is another damper you want to open. You can control your heat with these two devices. I brought it up to 600 degrees then lowered to 400 degrees. I added wood chips from Alder that I soaked for an hour, but I am not sure I would do this again for chicken. I also made the mistake of putting olive oil on it, with the high heat you really do not need that. It is not bad it just gave the bird a darker color.
Then you regulate the heat, once you got it you got it. It doesn’t fluctuate a whole lot. I cooked these birds for about 70 minutes. Notice the electric bbq temperature gauge on the right? That is a must. The last thing you want to do on any bbq smoker is keep opening to look at it. That is a rookie mistake, so stick your thermometer into the chicken, inside the dark meat next to the leg, close it. Put the alarm on at 170 and go make the side dishes.
Speaking of side dishes, I decided to go with a blue cheese wedge, with tomatoes and fresh cooked bacon.
Look how the skin is tearing from the bird, desperately holding on from keeping these birds from exploding out of their skin. It brought a tear to my eye.
The chicken is as moist as it gets with ton of flavor. This by far is the moistest chicken I have ever made. Unbelievable, and great texture! I think there is a lot of things you could do here. My brain is working on them, you are going to have to come back to get the low down.
Nice smoke ring color on the outside, and perfectly cooked. I am impressed with the Egg. I put the corn on grill and closed it for 10 minutes while I cut chicken and plated. The one thing I truly like about the Egg is that you close all the dampers and it will kill the burn within minutes so you can re-use the charcoal.
Here it goes, the photo show the bird a little dark, but you get the point. I had my folks over and they gave it a thumbs up rating. I had a breast today for a late breakfast snack and it was still juicy. I have to say, I am all over this!!! Until next time my friends. I think I will make a pizza on it tonight!
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This post reminded me of the egg-citement of bringing home the BGE and firing it up for the first time. It really is a BAD ASS piece of equipment.
Exactly it was like a kid in a candy store when I first got it. I go between the BGE and the Traeger depending on what I am cooking. Have you heard of a Traeger bbq?