Here’s how my first rotisserie chicken on a gas grill went. However, before I tell you about it, I have to let you know I don’t particularly care for rotisserie chicken. My wife loves the one’s from Farm Fresh Supermarkets and Food Lion, but not me so I decided to try to cook one myself.
The wife stuffed some onions and other goodness into the chicken while I got the rotisserie together. Word of warning here: Don’t leave your rotisserie outside because the chrome will pit. Store it in the house. It never crossed my mind. Oh well, I just scrubbed it up well.
Before putting the chicken on I removed the grill grates and put a double layer of foil under where the chicken would go and added some onions and basting liquid.
I mounted the chicken and balanced it out with the counterweight and went out to the warming grill. I say warming because the temperature was only about 30* outside. Brrrrr…. On it went and all was good, but the temperature just wasn’t coming up (You know this will lead to a gas grill vs charcoal grill article, don’t you?!?!). After about 30 minutes I had to turn on the outside burners of the Ducane natural gas grill to bring the temp up.
The chicken got a basting with some stuff my wife made.
Since this was only about a 2 1/2lb chicken I figured it’d take about an hour, but I wasn’t sure, and with the cold I really had no idea how long it would take. I checked the temp at about 45 minutes and it wasn’t even close so I stepped up the heat from the burners.
After 20 minutes I checked the temp again and we were on target for about 10 minutes longer. I let the wife know so she could finish up the rest of dinner, which was absolutely delicious.
Ten minutes later I went to the grill and OOOoooopppsss! I’d forgotten to turn the rotisserie back on after checking the temp. It wasn’t a complete loss, just a wing and some back meat, but damn. I can’t tell you how pissed I’d have been if that chicken was ruined!
Then the unthinkable happened, the foil folded in and dumped some juice onto the burners which caught fire! Damn, damn, damn! I had welding gloves on so I just grabbed the bird and took it inside after cutting the gas off. I then found some baking soda, which I should put on the list of Tools For The BBQ and Grill and put the flaming mess out.
We let the fowl rest a bit so it could come all the way to 180* and the juicy goodness could redistribute throughout the thing. Then the moment of truth, time to cut into it.
Yes! Moist, juicy, and that skin was awesome! The bird came out great, even tho it fought me the whole way. I can’t wait to do another one.
So what did I learn on my first roti cook? First, don’t use foil under the bird, use something stronger like a foil pan, or a foiled pan. Second, don’t forget to turn the rotisserie back on after checking the temp. And third, do it more often!
A rotisserie for my Weber Performer is on my birthday list!
Up next on the roti, I’m thinking pork loin. Oh yes!
