DrJones Posted May 24, 2020 Share Posted May 24, 2020 (edited) Hi Very new to bbq. I cooked my first whole chicken the other night (1.5KG). Used the indirect heating on the webber bbq. Looking at videos online the cook was suggesting about 1hr 15mins. The cook took me about 3hrs in the end. The food also tastes quite smokey - but not a nice smoke taste. I used Bar Be Quick Charcoal Briquettes. Any advice how I can get my food to taste less smokey. Is it down to the Briquettes I used and probably not enough coals that made it a rather long cook that led to the chicken being quite smokey. Any advice greatly appreciated. Cheers Edited May 24, 2020 by DrJones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icefever Posted May 24, 2020 Share Posted May 24, 2020 Welcome Dr Jones....well your chuck should not have taken that long...not unless you wanted LO & Slow...???😉 Never used the Bar Be Quick coals so can't comment...I stick with lumpwood charcoal. On the smoke side not sure where it was coming from if the coals had gone white, cook time I would say is down to the amount of fuel that you used?? what temp did you get on the kettle?? I would get a bag of charcoal, another chuck, spatchcock it, and get the kettle fired up and cook that. Wait for the lumpwood to stop smoking and go for it...see how that turns out. Ice. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrJones Posted May 24, 2020 Author Share Posted May 24, 2020 Cheers Icefever I will give that a go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smokin Monkey Posted May 24, 2020 Share Posted May 24, 2020 Hi Doc, should not have taken that long, what temp was it running at? Possibly over Smokey due to the charcoal smoldering instead of burning hot. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamG Posted May 24, 2020 Share Posted May 24, 2020 I have used bar-be-quick coals on a few occasions in the past and always found they burnt quite cool compared to other brands...this could be a possibility since it took 3 hours, hinting at a cooler temp and makes sense with what Smokin Monkey said. My go to brand when I was using briquettes was the Weber ones, although the Supergrill briquettes were decent enough. I only use lumpwood now so not sure if they are any better/worse now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Posted May 25, 2020 Share Posted May 25, 2020 Weber briquettes, or lump wood, will give more dependability on temp. What was the temp in the bbq with bar -be-quick ? I have never heard of that brand. Is is light in the bag type thing? If so I would avoid, they are impregnated with lighter fuel and wax, are dodgy and can leave a nasty taste plus the paper at the bottom can leave some residue left that block airflow. Do not worry mate, it is a learning curve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrJones Posted May 26, 2020 Author Share Posted May 26, 2020 Hi Everyone Thanks for all you input. One mistake I did make was not having a thermometer for the bbq. I watched a youtube video and was showing how to do a basic chicken with no thrills. But I am going to buy one now to make sure I can regulate the bbq temp. I do have a meat thermometer to make sure the food is cooked. I am going to try lump wood for the next bbq. Is there a rule of thumb with regards to how much coal to put on. One bbq novice mistake is too put too much coal on which creates a lot of heat, but I fear I might be going the other way with too little coal. Is lumpwood OK for cooking whole chicken. Know lumpwood is good for steaks and burgers from what I read. But was thinking fewer coals to reduce the heat. Cheers DJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamG Posted May 26, 2020 Share Posted May 26, 2020 (edited) Generally speaking, lumpwood is fine for anything. But in my personal experience with my old grill, briquettes were much easier to control than lumpwood (this was due to my old bbq having plenty of airleaks due to it being a cheap one). The Weber premium is the ones I used to use all the time and they were great for temp control. I would only suggest lumpwood if your grill does not have many air leaks that can stoke it with extra air. Lumpwood will burn as hot and as fast as it can, I would say limiting the air is more important with lumpwood than briquettes. This is based of my limited experience though so others may offer more advice and solutions🙂 Edited May 26, 2020 by AdamG spelling 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paolo Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 (edited) On 5/24/2020 at 1:15 PM, DrJones said: Hi Very new to bbq. I cooked my first whole chicken the other night (1.5KG). Used the indirect heating on the webber bbq. Looking at videos online the cook was suggesting about 1hr 15mins. The cook took me about 3hrs in the end. The food also tastes quite smokey - but not a nice smoke taste. I used Bar Be Quick Charcoal Briquettes. Any advice how I can get my food to taste less smokey. Is it down to the Briquettes I used and probably not enough coals that made it a rather long cook that led to the chicken being quite smokey. Any advice greatly appreciated. Cheers Hi mate i have a Webber kettle, I have also been using the same briquettes. I’ve had the kettle two weeks. The first weekend I smoked ribs and roasted a pork leg the following day. Both indirect with the food in the centre and coals either side. The results were decent. this last weekend I again did ribs and the following day pulled pork. This time I had the coals on one side and the food opposite. Both went wrong. I’m pretty sure this is because with the latter setup the temperature gauge is over the coals with the exhaust over my food, thus giving a very different reading. I didn’t realise until 6 hours into the pulled pork I stuck my instant read thermometer through the exhaust for a while and it was reading around 15% cooler than the gauge hence why my food wasn’t cooking as it should. I too will be getting a better thermometer 🙈... on the briquettes.. they burned for 8 hours and I have had no smoke fume/ bad taste issues I think they are good value for money. Bar be quick have been going for around 30 years I think. Edited May 28, 2020 by Paolo Incorrect post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paolo Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 res Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrJones Posted June 13, 2020 Author Share Posted June 13, 2020 Hi Everyone Thanks for your replies. Got me a thermometer now and some webber lump wood so will give the chicken another go. Cheers DJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul6057 Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 I use Australian Heat Beads for my barbecue. I prefer briquettes to lump wood just because of the uniformity of shape and therefore it is somewhat more predictable and consistent. Sounds like what everyone else has said, that your overall temperature was too low which meant the cook took really long. I cooked a chicken on my Smokey Mountain, beer-can style at about 110 C, and I don't think that even took 3 hours total to cook. I'm not sure on the bad smokey flavour. That might be a side effect of the fuel burning without enough air so not as clean as it should be. Some briquettes, especially if you're talking about supermarket or DIY store briquettes, can be made with some chemical binders that don't burn so cleanly and can give food a bit of a tainted taste. Good luck with the future barbecuing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 On 5/28/2020 at 2:57 PM, Paolo said: Hi mate i have a Webber kettle, I have also been using the same briquettes. I’ve had the kettle two weeks. The first weekend I smoked ribs and roasted a pork leg the following day. Both indirect with the food in the centre and coals either side. The results were decent. this last weekend I again did ribs and the following day pulled pork. This time I had the coals on one side and the food opposite. Both went wrong. I’m pretty sure this is because with the latter setup the temperature gauge is over the coals with the exhaust over my food, thus giving a very different reading. I didn’t realise until 6 hours into the pulled pork I stuck my instant read thermometer through the exhaust for a while and it was reading around 15% cooler than the gauge hence why my food wasn’t cooking as it should. I too will be getting a better thermometer 🙈... on the briquettes.. they burned for 8 hours and I have had no smoke fume/ bad taste issues I think they are good value for money. Bar be quick have been going for around 30 years I think. Never trust the temp gauge on the slid, probe in food and clipped to grate is reliable. Probe in the top air exhaust is not reliable either Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul6057 Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 Saw these in Waitrose this morning. I haven't price checked, but £10 for 5kg of Weber lumpwood seemed alright, so I bought one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 8kg weber briquettes £14.99 garden centres Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul6057 Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 18 minutes ago, Justin said: 8kg weber briquettes £14.99 garden centres That's the same as Waitrose then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 yep rrp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sluggy Posted June 16, 2020 Share Posted June 16, 2020 I smoke whole turkeys all the time on my Smokey mountain. The biggest improvement you can make is charcoal. Use rubbish and you’ll turn out rubbish. I exclusively use heat beads on my smoker, olive wood briquettes and Weber in that order are the only charcoal briquettes I’ll use on my smoker if I can’t get heat beads. Anything else in my experience just isn’t worth the time. Cheaper briquettes are ok on a standard bbq if you get them fully alight but don’t last long. I don’t have much experience with lump wood as I always get bags of shrapnel and and don’t find lump wood as manageable myself. With my briquettes I at least know that any smoke I add is from my choice of wood and not weird fillers 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul6057 Posted June 27, 2020 Share Posted June 27, 2020 I bought a bag of the Weber lumpwood the other week and I've used it a few times. I'm not a fan though, I must say. The pros are that it lights up pretty fast, but the major down side is that it seems to burn so hot and so fast. Briquettes are much better for control, but maybe for just doing a few burgers or sausages, the lump wood is good enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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