Slow smoked country style pork ribs on the steel kamado

Last week I did country style pork ribs. At an oven temperature of 225F it took 2 hours to get them to an internal temp of 165F.

I did them indirectly over water with soaked hickory chunks on lump charcoal. The smoking was continuous throughout the cook. Then at the end I brushed each side with Yeungling's Hot Lager BBQ sauce











 
and did another 5 minutes on each side still over water.

They were great! Smokey, juicy, not burned and full of flavor! I'll do that again.

Cornell Chicken on the Steel Kamado

In upstate NY almost every volunteer fire department raises money with chicken bar-b-ques.
The typical style is with the so-called Cornell marinade. 
http://www.amazingribs.com/recipes/chicken_turkey_duck/cornell_chicken.html
This is well detailed in this website.

I cooked this recently on the kooker with bottled State Fair Speedie Sauce that is widely available here in NNY.
I cooked Chicken breasts with skin on that were marinated in the sauce for 24 hours.
Initially, I cooked them indirectly @ about 300F for approximately 50 minutes to an internal temp of 150F.

Then  I cooked them directly opening the drafts and letting the oven temp go up to 350F for about 20 minutes (turning twice) to crisp the skin and to a final internal temp of 165F.
Here is one served with salt potatoes (another unique upstate NY favorite) and a salad.

As usual with this kamado--crisp and juicy. Next time I might let the final oven temp go even higher--maybe 400 F to make it more crispy. Cooked by the firemen, these are often blackened with char. I was trying to avoid that.

Tandoori Chicken in the hole

Before I got the CharGriller Akorn Kamado Kooker, I bought these sword-like long skewers at a Middle Eastern grocery in Ottawa, Ca. I thought that I some how might be able to replicate a tandoori oven cooking experience with these. The steel kamado seems to be able to make this happen. I put skinless chicken breasts ( marinated 48 hours in yogurt and tandoori spice mix)  on the skewers which I had to bend to fit under the closed dome.






















 I put a potato under each breast to prevent the breast from falling off and stuck them in the hole of the cast iron grill. About 23 minutes later at approximately 470F they were done @ 160 F internal temperature. 

They were great! I've done these before on the Weber or the gas grill but I don't think they were ever this good before. Crisp and juicy!

Kamado Twice Smoked Ham

I smoked a 9# spiral cut pre-cooked ham last Saturday. 

I cooked it indirectly over liquid ---water and porter (not sure that the porter made a difference) with water soaked hickory chunks.

 It took about 2 hr 45 minutes to get to 133 degrees F internal temperature with an average oven temperature of approximately 250 degrees F. At about 1.5 hours into the cook I checked the accuracy of a new remote oven thermometer that I got.

 Looking at the ham, I was afraid that it was drying out. So I put foil on the grate under it and a foil tent over it.

 I didn't use a glaze as I don't really like making the meat sweet and sugary. My wife pointed out that I oriented it wrongly.. However, for all that, it came out great.

 After taking it out of the kamado, I wrapped it in foil to sit for an hour. Except for the big piece on the end which was a little dry and black, it was very moist and very smokey.
The thermometer on the kamado is now 50 to 75 degrees low compared to the new remote thermometer which I tested against an over thermometer of known accuracy. I checked the accuracy of the kamado thermometer when I put it together. I have to figure out how to adjust it.
For a finishing touch, I took down the diffuser grate and the liquid and took out the hickory chunks. Then I cooked biscuits.

Delicious. Pillsbury Buttermilk Grands fresh from the refrigerator tube! They were great!

Kamado pizza

My 1st trial of pizza was a prepared cook at home pizza from Sam's Club. We usually put Penzey's (http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/shophome.html ) pizza spice on this and we did with this one too.That stuff really pumps it up and is highly recommended regardless of how you cook it.

I put some sticks of a native thornapple tree on just before putting on the pizza. I thought it was good but maybe a little too smokey. My wife loved it and gobbled up the leftovers before I had a chance to ask about it.

Here it is going on. I held the temperature as close to 375F as I could by adjusting the drafts.

Here it is done after 15 minutes both per the package directions. I did it indirectly (w/o water of course)

and on a pizza screen. I went to the local cookware store (http://www.smithrestaurantsupply.com/) to get a stone and the sales lady talked me out of it. This actually worked fine but I'd still like to try a stone. Also maybe less smokey for me next time.

Wild Turkey on the steel kamado

Someone I know @ work was telling me about hunting wild turkeys this spring. I said that I had never
had that (except from a bottle) and he offered to share some of his next kill. 2 days later, he brought in 2 fresh boned breasts. What a nice and generous treat!. My wife marinated one for  ~ 48 hours in Kraft

Honey Mustard with Oscar Meyer Bacon salad dressing per a recipe she found on line.
The result after 60 minutes in the steel kamado (after 60 minutes at ~325F indirect over water to an internal temp of 165F) was amazing. I understand that this often dry. This turkey was very moist and juicy like your average Thanksgiving bird done in the kitchen oven. You could taste the marinade but in the center it was turkey full and flavorful.

You can see @ the cuts that it is done through and white in the center. I think I'll try smoking the second breast indirectly over water w/o marinade just to compare. I'm not sure if the juiciness is due to the marinade or the kamado.

a bigger chicken

This time a 7# roaster with some changes that seemed to be improvements:
#1 Royal Oak Lump Charcoal that seemed to light faster and burn a little hotter than the Cowboy Brand I had earlier:

#2 A change in the indirect cooking set up to allow for cooking of a larger bird over water:

#3 Chunks of hickory wood for smoking instead of chips:

The smoking went on for the entire cook without adding any wood.

It was a rainy afternoon/ evening, so I put the cooker under the portico on my detached garage;
at this point I feel experienced enough to avoid flare ups when opening the lid; I started the fire with
the dome lid shut and both drafts fully open. It seemed the Royal Oak was less prone to sparking.
It was a cool windy evening 45F ( 35F with the wind chill). I aimed for about 325F on the dome thermometer. It was 400F when I was ready to put it on but came down to about 325F after putting on the chunks, the diffuser rack, the pan of water, the cast iron grate and the bird and closing it back up. I had to choke the lower draft down to 1 or less as it was positioned to face a stiff NW breeze. The top draft was at 1 or 2 depending on the temperature's recent direction. Perhaps due to the wind, I found it a bit more difficult to hold the temp steady and adjustments seemed to be required periodically. Here is the result after 94 minutes with an internal breast temperature of 165F.

You can also see the little plastic popup thermometer has worked too.

I have smoked quite a few chickens with many different cookers over the years but this has to be one of my best efforts. It was intensely smokey with a strong hickory flavor and as usual, with this kamado, moist to perfection!

Lamb Tandoori-style on the steel Kamado

My latest cooking project was a butterflied boneless leg of lamb prepared Tandoori-style marinated by my wife according to this recipe:


 Tandoori-spiced Grilled Lamb

Ingredients

2-1/2 lbs. boneless leg of lamb, butterflied

2 cups plain whole milk yogurt

1 small onion, diced

6 large cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

2 tspn. ginger root, roughly chopped

2 tspn. garam masala

2 tspn. ground cumin

1 tspn. ground coriander

¼ tspn ground fennel seed

¼ tspn. fresh ground black pepper

1 tspn. olive oil

½ tspn. cayenne pepper (+ or- to taste)

Juice of ½ lemon

1 tspn. salt (+ or – to taste)

Directions

Using paper towel, dry the lamb and set aside.  In a large nonreactive (glass or stainless steel) bowl, combine remaining ingredients and mix well. Add the lamb, turn to coat, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate for 8 hours or up to 2 days.

When ready to cook, wipe off all the marinade and discard.

Here it sits in the marinade after 24 hours in the cooler.

And here it is with the marinade wiped off.

I placed it on the Kamado Kooker which was steady @ 500F with the lower and upper drafts both on position 3. I placed an additional rack above the lump charcoal fire. On that rack I placed an empty metal pan to act as a diffuser. So, this was cooked indirectly but with no liquid and no wood chips.    

                                             

I seared it on both sides briefly and then  closed the dome. 

The temperature on the dome thermometer

was adjusted again to just below 500F by opening both drafts and then returning both to position 3.

I monitored the internal temperature of the meat with a remote temperature probe and took it off at 160F

which was reached in about 45 minutes.

Here it is done on the grill.The diffuser pan obscures the view of the 

coals beneath.

It was was cooked to medium and amazingly delicious. It was quite moist and the spices permeated it thoroughly. I'm anxious to do this again and I don't plan any changes.

Kamado Hamburgers

I wanted to try hamburgers on the steel kamado. I tried to research this online regarding cooking temperature and time with only a bit of luck. (I found a nice YouTube video in Swedish that was lost on me.)
It seemed that there is not a lot out there about Kamado burgers. Now I think I know why. To me they seemed about the same as if I had done them on the Weber (20+ years experience on that) or one of several cylindrical LP gas grill smokers that I've had over the past several years. Currently I have a Brinkmann unit:

This has been great for winter cooking and usable outdoors on the porch down to about 10F.

But I digress; I cooked the burgers directly on lump charcoal at 350F-375F per the Char-Griller Kamado Kooker's Dome thermometer (which I had tested in our kitchen oven for accuracy as I put the Kamado together).

 I did about 2 minutes and then flipped and another 2 minutes and then flipped and then another 7 minutes all with the dome closed after each step plus the last 2 minutes I toasted the buns on the elevated rack. 

They were just delicious and done through but quite juicy. However, not very different from my experiences on the cookers noted above.

kamado smoked chicken

My most recent trial of the new cooker was smoking a chicken + a pork loin. This time indirect smoking @ 270F once again with hardwood lump charcoal and Jack Daniel's chips. About 45 minutes for the pork loin which I took off at 150F planning to warm it up in the microwave for a later dinner.
Just under 1 hour 15 minutes for the chicken which was 4.5 # & finished at 175F. That was exceptionally delicious. Very moist and tender and well smoked. With an electric starter and a perforated 2 # coffee can chimney to start the charcoal in, it took about 30 minutes to be ready to put the chips on and start smoking.

New kamado cooker

I got this new cooker just after the beginning of January but it has been too cold to check it out until now. It is a Char-Griller Kamado Kooker that I bought @ Gander Mountain. For St. Patrick's Day, I smoked indirectly 2 ~4 # corned beef briskets with hardwood lump charcoal and Jack Daniel's smoking chips. The cooker temperature was pretty easily kept @  250 F with the draft controls. It took about 1 hour 25 minutes to get the meat to an internal temperature of 145 F in the thickest part of the meat monitored with a Grill Zone (SBQ-2628-CU) Wireless MEAT THERMOMETER that I bought on eBay. The woven steel wire for this was led out through the vent on the top. The meat was moist and delicious. Next time though I might go up to 150F and add a second helping of soaked chips. More pictures:

ready to cook

chips on

brisket on

smoking with the thermometer wire coming out

done

The kamado seems to work pretty well for a newbie.