Rotisserie attempt 3: roast beef

[Lightning]

Last night I used the rotisserie for the third time and cooked a sirloin tip roast.  I think I'm slowly getting the hang of it because the roast turned out very nicely.  After the chicken and the pork roast I tried, I seriously cut down the amount of charcoal and the cooking time before I started checking temperatures and got the roast off the heat shortly after it passed medium rare.

It seems like it takes less charcoal in the Weber charcoal baskets to meet an internal temperature inside the grill than to cover the charcoal grate to make a given surface area for direct heat cooking, so I've been making an adjustment to not fill the chimney as high when I'm using the rotisserie.  And I'm getting a better handle on estimating the cooking times, which have all been much shorter than I expected.

I'll be enjoying the leftovers later today.

[MikeRocksTheRed]

I recently got a roto as well.  My first chicken cook I used a full chimney split between my baskets and found it was way too hot.  My second cook I used a little less and think I still need to go with even few coals on my next cook.  It's a work in progress, but both chickens did come out just fine.  They just cooked a little to hot and first for what I was aiming for.

[iCARRY]

Doing my first chicken tomorrow or Friday. It's 5.5 lbs. how big we're your chickens? How long did you cook it for?


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[MikeRocksTheRed]

@iCARRY -  My chickens were both right around 5.5 lbs.  I stuck a probe from my maverick in the lid vent and let it dange down about where my chicken was.  I was running 400-450 for most of the time.  I think I'd rather be around 325.  I don't have exact times on my birds but I think they went about an hour.  I let the breasts get 5-8 above 165 so the dark meat would cook a little more and it still came out juicy.  I think the rotation of the bird helps keep a lot of the juices in.  I'd start with just a little more than half a lit chimney split between two baskets on my next cook.  It's easy to add more coals if needed, but my roto has some gaps at where it sits in the kettle so its hard for me to cool it down.  I might order a gasket so I my roto fits a little tigher on the kettle.

@Lightning  -  What aboout you, how did your chicken turn out?

[Lightning]

My chicken was a fryer chicken of about the same weight. I seriously overcooked it.  It was the first thing I cooked on the rotisserie and I totally misjudged how much charcoal to use and how long it would take to cook through and went far too heavy on both, but despite being overcooked, it was still surprisingly juicy, and that's what saved it, the self basting from rotating.  If I had done it to the same temperature over the same time in a regular oven or in the kettle without the rotisserie, it would've been a dried out wreck and I would have been ordering a pizza that night.

[Travis]

I've been using a roti for about a year now. Cool thing about it is you can do bigger birds. I use about 3/4 chimney full between two baskets. Seems to run my cooker around 400. I like to overshoot the temp around 170ish in the breast because for some reason if I try for 160ish in the breast, the thigh wont be done. I've cut up a few and cursed. The self basting will keep her just fine. Going to try some ribs next. Sounds fun. Good luck!