Big Green Egg Adventures – Chicken

I have been a rabid fan of chicken since my youthful days eating my Arkansas grandmother Rutha McAbee’s (born 1898) sublime skillet-fried chicken, brought to crispy perfection in either lard or bacon fat. There was always the resultant white gravy, made from the chicken drippings. This incredible combination was always served with Rutha’s made-from-scratch ethereal biscuits. Those tastes and smells are seared into my DNA. I seek to replicate the chicken-induced culinary ecstasies of my youth. As a result of my childhood exposure to deep south chicken cookery at its best, I have high chicken standards.

I have been an enthusiastic cook since age 8. I started by boiling hot dogs, opening and heating cans of Dinty Moore Beef Stew, learning how to use an oven to heat TV Dinners, making waffles in the toaster. I have cooked chicken my entire life, with some excellent results. I developed an excellent stove top chicken repertoire. When my boy Matt gifted me the Big Green Egg, a new panorama of chicken possibilities presented itself.

However Chicken on the Green Egg has a steep learning curve. Basically, there are two levels for grilling directly over the hardwood coals and a convection oven insert. I make marinades from scratch using “approved” ingredients. I combine apple cider vinegar with honey, coconut MCT oil, turmeric, slivered garlic and perhaps some quality apple juice. I place bone-in, skin on, brined, thighs (three hours, salt, brown sugar) onto the grate set for “Cowboy Style” grilling directly over the hot coals. I dried and salted the brine-swollen thighs and placed them skin side up on the grill six inches above the blazing coals.

I flipped the thighs and paid close attention when skin-side down. I extracted them before they started to burn. When both sides were seared, I began dunking the thighs into my vat of marinade. Every few minutes I would extract, dunk, and throw the now-wet thighs back on the inferno. With each flip-and-dunk the time on the flaming grill grew shorter. When a large thigh hit 165 internal temp, we were done.

The results were mixed. The classic problem with this type cooking (which I love) is charred exterior, raw interior. Brining helped for sure. Continual dunking helped for sure. Still, the chicken skin, divine in the right hands, was carcinogenic, partially blackened, partially rubberized and “just okay,” as Randy Jackson used to say when he was less than enthusiastic about an American Idol performance. I need more Cowboy Style reps.

The next Green Egg iteration increases the distance between coals and the protein. By inserting a second ceramic sleeve, the grill now hoovers 10-12 inches above the inferno. I am working this zone as we speak. Past this, and the Green Egg has yet another ceramic insert that changes the Egg from two levels of direct flame into an indirect convection oven, easily capable of hitting 600 to 700 degrees. Flip over the convection oven insert and your Egg is converted into a pizza oven. Awesome. Baking is an exploration yet to come.

I am still dealing with the Zen Koan of cooking chicken over direct high heat. I recently purchased a cast-iron grill grate for the Egg The heavy grate turned out to be a great purchase. The cast iron creates a super-hot surface, hotter than the 600 degree coals it sits atop. Searing is effortless. Another very effective (and inexpensive) purchase was a heavy circular wire contraption that keeps a chicken held vertical while roasting.

My new tactic is to brine one of the excellent local free-range organic chickens, raised by the local Mennonite farmers (smaller, leaner, far more flavorful than supermarket chickens) then set it upright in the Green Egg convection oven using the vertical holder set in a small drip pan or dutch oven.

I roasted the small whole bird at 350 degrees for a little over an hour. It looked beautiful, a golden bronze that invited your eyes. Imagine the crushing disappointment when that bronzed chicken skin proved uneatable as rubber.  The chicken meat below the rubberized skin was moist, succulent, delicious. My thought was, I suppose the meat beneath the skin was kept super moist by the rubber suit that the smoked skin turned into.

A friend related a tip that seemed potentially game changing:  to render skin crispy for his family’s annual Christmas goose, he steamed the bird before roasting it. I thought, why not brine an organic bird, then steam it, not too much – but not too little – 15 minutes of gentle steam – then roast it over wood smoke. I dried the steamed bird off with paper towels. I soured the skin with a serrated knife: the skin split like butter.

I put quality olive oil on my hands and lovingly greased the scored bird. I salted the hall out of bird with pink salt and placed the upright bird on a ten-inch baking pan that I set in the middle of the Green Egg, now cruising along at 400 degrees. I spritzed the bird with apple juice every 30 minutes. When the thermometer inserted deep in the thigh hit 170 internal temperature, I pulled and rested the bird.

Visually, it was enticing, factually, a disappointment. Once again, the meat beneath the “just okay” skin was excellent and the superb, succulent meat made the effort worth it. But for a man in search of Peking Duck skin, the results were subpar. The next strategy?? Convection oven, lower heat, lower cook, spritz.  On we go. I am a rookie in the Green Egg world, feeling my way along one bird at a time.

We have the medium Big Green Egg which is an excellent size for us. The grid diameter is 15 inches with a cooking area of 177 square inches. Controlling the temperature is way easier than our oven. The cook temperature of the Egg can go up to as high as 750 degrees. The patented design allows me to modify the temperature quickly and easily through the flow draft door at the bottom and the vent cap door at the top. Along with the multiple tiered options from 6 inches above the coals to indirect cooking the possibilities are endless. If you want to learn more you can check out Green Egg sizes, features and find a dealer here. 

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