Just in case anybody cares: We had a relaxed, plentiful and tasty BBQ yesterday evening with some friends. Finally again something that didn’t involve charring supermarket pork chops on the grill but a barbecue fattie for four hours in the (makeshift) smoker and nice dutch oven full of Chicken and veggies 🙂
First Dutch Oven Chicken Roast
My first try on the dutch oven other than for baking bread yesterday, together with some friends. Turns out, it’s an absolutely great tool, easy to use, minimum effort required and surprisingly convenient. I made five rubbed chicken legs with some potatoes, onions and a load of garlic, added pepper, herbs and a little beer and broth. Then just let it sit undisturbed for 1 1/2 hours and they came out juicy, tender and flavourful. Success!
Chicken Spit Roast
I finally put my DIY Rotisserie to use yesterday evening. To be honest, I had no clue what to do so I just marinated 4 cut up chicken breasts in a little olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary and skewered them up. After 1 1/2 hours slowly turning over the fire, they were perfectly good, crispy outside and juicy inside. I’m definitely going to do that again.
I made a Thing…
So, over the last few weeks I bolted and welded together some kind of a chuckwagon-kitchen-appliance for my garden firebowl. As usual I tried to use mainly scrap from the shop, recycling what I had but in this case I had to buy some steel rods and small parts.
Rotisserie DIY
I welded together a rotisserie mostly from scraps in the shop! I wanted it to fit into the grate slots of my stone barbecue grill so I had to design it exactly to size. I also had to grind up an idea on where to put the electric motor since, in my case, there are walls in exactly the spot where all the store bought ones have their drive.
New Cold Smoker: First real Action
As much of a little weakling my first cold smoker was, as much of a fu**ing hellraiser is this one. I even have the feeling it might do a little too much…
Cold Smoke Generator – Next Test
Ma-han! That thing absolutely works!!! As soon as you do it rigtht, it suddenly works…
I used smaller wood chips this time and an additional hole for added draft. It really glows like hell now and I’m looking forward to smoking some bacon tomorrow.
Cold Smoke Generator – New Approach (Prototype)
I know that not all folks out there like those cold smoke generators for smoking meat. Many rather rely on the good old openly glowing wood chips in a bowl at the bottom of their smoke house. But for my small batches in my small smoker, these generators come in really handy. Since, unfortunately, the last cold smoke generator wasn’t so much the bringer of happiness, I tried a new approach:
