Zuni chicken question

[mielimato]

I am planning on making Zuni cafe's baked chicken this Sunday for about 8 people. I have two 1.8 kilo chickens, although is slightly bigger than the other (but not by much). How should I go about baking the chickens? I'd like to bake them together so that they are ready at the same time but will that change the cooking time? Should I adjust the temperature? Thank you!

[jfood]

jfood did a chicken and a half last time and the timing did not change at all. The issue will be the vessel and the managing of the smoke/temperature. Two birds will have a lot of fat melting and if you do not watch the temperature carefully it could be a smokey mess. Likewise what size vessel are you considering. Jfood has done 1 1/2 in one large and two separates will equally good results.

Someone advised him several months ago to "drain" the grease after 15 minutes and then after 25 and then every 5 minutes. This worked pretty well (remember to keep the oven door closed while you do this).

This weekend jfood is going to try a Zuni-type on the Weber.with indirect high heat.

[Romanmk]

Tell us how it turns out.

[jfood]

Well it just came off the Weber so the other jfoods can have tonight since jfood will be on a plane. It came out great. Looks like the real thing, jfood puul a leg off and tried it, the meat was still moist and the skin crispy. And no smoke in the kitchen.

[mielimato]

Have you ever tried grilling the whole chicken on a traditional bbq? That is also a possibility for me. But I have never grilled a whole chicken before and think it might be risky because it will be more difficult to control the temperature. I don't have a fancy grill. My grill is old school. A builtin brick grill that runs on firewood.

[jfood]

jfood grills whole chickens on his gas weber all the time. He purchased a vertical wire stand for about $3 many years ago.

On a three burner weber he lights front and back and leaves middle in off position. brings to 500 degrees (about 10 minutes). Oils the vertical roaster slides, the seasoned bird on it and into the weber. About 35 minutes later the most beautifully golden browned crispy-juicy chicken comes back into the house. If you have the middle burner on, even so slightly, you bird will resemble a black crow when you look.

jfood imagines if you keep the wood out from underneath the bird and have a cover, you should do fine but you may lose a couple in the learning curve phase.

[Tehama]

http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/...

JFood- was just looking for another recipe at the Splendid Table while simultaneously reading CH, when I came upon this recipe for vertical chicken. I had just read your post... thought I might pass this on to you.

[jfood]

many thanks T. Interesting that she places a water bath underneath.

good luck to your avatar this weekend.

[Gooseberry]

you could google beer can chicken, although I think that is often made in a weber or other grill which can be closed (for all around heat). If your brick grill is open, a spatchcocked chicken (spine removed, flattened) is great, and the flavour is lovely. Less worry about heat coming from one direction, since it really has only two sides once flattened. Your butcher can do it for you, and it's easy to learn how and do at home.

[Devil Queen]

I don't see why you couldn't bake them together, but allow for some more time anyway due to the more chicken = less air circulating in the oven.
Use your instant read thermometer to make sure it is done.

[mielimato]

Sorry I meant to say, one is slightly bigger than the other but not by much.