Rotisserie and the long forgotten Kettle Pizza

[Lightning]

Unless I've got a financial crisis, I usually use my tax refund to help buy something I normally couldn't afford. Last year, it was the Smokey Mountain and this year I decided to get the Weber rotisserie kit for the kettle.  This meant a trip to the local barbecue specialty shop since most places have the rotisserie as a special order item only but as luck would have it, one was in stock so I bought it and picked up a small fryer chicken on the way home. I seasoned the chicken and it's been spinning for about two and a quarter hours now on medium/low heat and it's starting to smell and look good, and I can't wait to give it a taste test.  There is definitely an art to getting it on the forks though and I stripped off a bit of skin at one end discovering you need to give the fork a good shove to puncture whatever you're putting it into before it'll slide in cleanly.  Same with trussing it up neatly.

While I was there I browsed around and saw a kettle set up with a Kettle Pizza attachment.  That jogged my memory.  I have one that's been sitting in its box the last three years unopened. I got it shortly after being given the kettle but never used it since things went south with my ex in a big way at the same time and it basically got put away for later and forgotten about during the ensuing fiasco.  So I rummaged around, found it iin it's unopened box and opened it up, and there it is waiting to be assembled three years later and used.  This is a situation I'll have to correct soon.

Anyways, any advice on using either would be really helpful.

[addicted-to-smoke]

So how'd the chicken turn out?

For pizza clues, take a look in the Pizza section here.

[Lightning]

The chicken turned out pretty well for a first attempt.  I ended up slightly overcooking it because I overestimated the cooking time and it was well done by the time I stuck a thermometer in it.  The dark meat was gorgeous and the white meat was still good, but had just started to dry.  Lessons learned for next time.  Also, I need to tweak the seasonings a bit and maybe stick some lemon wedges and onion chunks in the cavity, but I'm happy with how it turned out given I've never done anything like that before.

As for the Kettle Pizza, I'm still kicking myself over that. It got bought and out on a shelf and totally forgotten about in the chaos that came shortly after.  I'll be reading up on that and shopping for some pizza ingredients soon.  I should probably take some time this weekend and see if there are any other projects got shelved at the time and never got revisited, although I'm pretty sure there are no other BBQ related ones.

[Jon]

That's like getting an old coat out of the closet, putting it on and finding a twenty dollar bill in the pocket. Except better.

[MikeRocksTheRed]

@Lightning -  I just got a roto a few weeks ago and did a chicken for the test run.  It came out really good.  I did it higher (375-425) and faster (didn't really pay attention to the time, but it had to have been under an hour) than you did but I don't think that matters much.  The first time I probed the breast it wasn't done yet.  The second time it was well past done, but due to this the dark meat was also done.  I always find it hard to get the dark meat to be done at the same time as the white meat.  I like my dark meat cooked to 175-180 so that the connective tissue is starting to disolve and you can actually get the meat off of the bone....anyway, breast was 170-175ish and the dark meat was right there too.  I think the slow spinning bird really helps it retain some moisture that would normally drip out on a stationary cook.  I can't wait to do another one!

As far as Pizza goes, the pizza section here on WKC is fairly new, but has lots of good info.  Please ask any questions you have.  There are a good handful of us who have been making a lot of pizzas and "think" we have things fairly dialed in!!!  LOL

[Lightning]

Did your rotisserie come with a counterweight?  Mine didn't even though the handle end of the spit has beveled part that the counterweight weight I've seen in some pictures and videos clips into.  I bought my rotisserie new so I hope I'm not missing a part it should've come with.

The dark meat on my chicken was absolutely gorgeous. It fell off the bone.  I need to watch it little more closely now that I know it doesn't take as long to cook as I first thought.

[MikeRocksTheRed]

@Lightning -  Mine did come with a counter weight.  I got this one.  I went with the SS model.  And of course its $14 cheaper today than when I bought it a few weeks ago.  The steel black one is super cheap right now at $69.99