This month, STEVE BAIN rolls out the kettle barbecue and shows how to cook a serious quantity of chicken finger foods for a gathering of 30 or more guests.
Gathering around the barbecue is a true-blue Aussie backyard tradition.
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Sure, air fryers are great for one, maybe two people and kitchen ovens can make enough for a family. However, it’s double stacking in a smoker that gives you a leg up (not the world’s best pun, but it was intended) when cooking items such as chicken drumsticks for a larger group.
Using two grids (a different levels) in either a kettle or ‘bullet’ style smoker barbecue doubles the food production capacity of your outdoors cooking appliance.
For larger crowds at home, it is not unusual for both the guest and the cooking to end up ‘out in the backyard’.
METHOD
Step 1: Firstly get your kettle-type barbecue ready by loading it up with fuel in the form of either lump charcoal or briquettes. When cooking small, quickly cookable morsels of food, many ‘pitmasters’ prefer the smokier flavour imparted by the charcoal option. The tip here is to follow the instructions on the packet.
Step 2
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Step 2: Using an odourless natural-firestarter, rather than suffering the fumes of/from a chemical smelling option (such as firelighter cubes), is another option preference that sets pitmasters apart from the pack. This can be particularly noticeable out in the backyard when guests are gathered around the barbecue (and giving advice).
Step 3
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Step 3: A gas-fuelled firelighter makes for easy ignition of the firestarter.
Step 4
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Step 4: Use a few firestarters to get the party started.
Step 5
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Step 5: A slightly different set-up. Note that the fuel is on the middle, and the grid has a removable centre piece (the centre piece is removed to allow the heat to rise up through the middle to the next/upper tray. See the next photos in the sequence for an image of the upper tray).
Step 6
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Step 6: In this photo you can see three of the hickory blocks that are used to hold the upper tray.
Step 7
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Step 7: A close up of the hickory blocks. These blocks are food-friendly options from your smoker equipment supply store.
Step 8
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Step8: The lower tray, fully loaded with chicken finger food.
Step 9
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Step 9: This is the upper grid, fully loaded.
Step 10
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Step 10: Place the lid on your kettle barbecue and cook for between 20 and 30 minutes, depending on your heat. You’ll need to do this a few times to get the hang of your set-up. During these practice sessions, it is advisable to keep checking the rate of cooking of both trays ... a handy hack is that the height of the hickory blocks (long side or short side) will influence the cooking time.
Step 11
Step 11: Instead of the kettle-type ‘sound’ smoker barbecue you can alternatively use a bullet-style barbecue smoker in pretty much the same way for the approach used in this article (we will delve into bullet style smokers and their strengths in more depth in a future article).
Now, of course, you’ll (I suggest) want your chicken pieces to be flavour tailored to your guests. May I encourage you to develop your own blend of glaze and/or rub(s). Lynn gives one of her go-to options in her article this month.
