I went and bought a Weber on Tuesday this week and today I finally got around to christening it. There will be no photo’s today as we ate the result before I could get the camera. Oh, yeah, it really WAS that good.
I am a huge fan of BBQ chicken of any description so I raided my stash in the freezer and thawed out a beautiful corn-fed free-range bird. While the coals were “cooking” and getting to the desired state (glowing, with a coating of ash), I wiped the bird dry, stuffed a small lemon into the cavity with some seasoning, rubbed it with olive oil and sprinkled on some salt and pepper. Very simple.
Then, all I did was lay the bird breast-up on the grill, whacked on the lid and left things alone for 45 minutes while the Weber did all the hard work. At the 45 mark, I put in a parcel of mesquite smoking chips and put the lid back on for another 20 minutes. The smells that were coming out at this point were making me drool.
Unable to resist peeking, I looked under the lid and – as the bird was a deep burnished brown already – removed the smoking wood and checked the bird with a thermometer. Yep, it was done.
As I’d overestimated the amount of briquettes required, I still had a lovely fire going so I quickly defrosted my cured pork belly, refreshed the smoking wood, and whacked it on the grill. Finally! After not being able to hot smoke it because of a fire ban ages ago, it’s now sitting out there getting a fantastic colour.
I can hardly wait to see how that turns out. Yum yum yum!!!!
(Oh, and today, I also finished painting the spare room, went and got a car-load of mushroom compost for the garden, and found where Victoria’s Basement was hiding and bought two sets of cocktail glasses and some assorted bar-ware. Roll on SUMMER!!!!!)
