Joetisserie Chicken
So it’s time to take the Joetisserie for another spin, Chicken A la Awesome on its way. Chicken plus charcoal just seems to be a match made in heaven. Is it a traditional pairing or more of a cultural thing, I’m not sure. The thing I am sure of is that the combination of chicken and charcoal on a joetisserie in a Kamado is super amazing.
Here is my latest version of Joetisserie charcoal chicken.
Ingredients
- Whole chicken
- A whole lemon, quartered
- 4 cloves of garlic, peeled.
- A generous amount of fresh Thyme
- Your favourite dry rub – this cook was the “Plow Boys BBQ – Yardbird Rub
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Kamado Setup
We are setting up for a Joetisserie 
cook and aiming for a dome temperature of around 177C [350F]
From previous experience, fire management is critical in getting the Joetisserie cook done right. I bank the charcoal up against the rear of the kamado and in this instance lit it in 3 places with starter cubes.
I have found that getting the kamado to stabilise at your desired temperature is even more important when using the Joetisserie attachment. I also find that my vent positions are totally different (more open) then when cooking without it.
Method
While the kamado is coming up to temperature, stuff the lemon, thyme and garlic into the cavity of the chicken.
Apply a liberal coating of your dry rub, I used a small amount of olive oil to act as a binder of the rub. Give it about 5 minutes to allow the first coating of rub to “soak” and then apply another coat.
Thread the chicken onto the joetisserie rod *remember to set your first (I prefer the motor side) spikes first, this makes sure the chicken is in the middle of the rod and you don’t have any last minute adjustments. Check that the wings and legs aren’t flopping around, tie them back or as I did pin them with a skewer.
Onto the kamado, turn on the joetisserie motor and let it work its magic.
As a side dish, I double wrapped 4 ears of corn(husk on) in heavy duty foil and placed them into the fire bowl, opposite to the coals. All I did for these is ¼ turn every so often. I had also roasted a tray of veggies for around an hour before putting the chicken on. I held these in the oven to keep them warm waiting for the chicken to finish spinning.
Time and Temp
- Target dome temp 177C [350F]
- Duration 2hr 10 minutes from putting onto the kamado to having the cooked chicken off the rotisserie resting while plating up the veggies
- Breast Temp 75C [167F]
This one went a little longer than I had planned for, was thinking the time should have been closer to the 1hr 30 minutes mark. I need to check the calibration of the dome temp as if this is reading cooler than it should that would translate into a longer cook. On the to-do list. How often do you calibrate or check the dome thermometer?
The result
BOOM !!
Super juicy. Perhaps the added steam in the cavity from the lemon added to the juiciness? There were some areas where you could taste a very slight hint of the lemon. The skin was amazing and the flavour just pops cooking over charcoal. Kind of like some sort of black magic.
