How much charcoal

[WMT]

I fired up my new master touch today for the first time to cook some chicken breasts. I lit one full chimney of charcoal and spread the coals out evenly around the grate. Because it was new I let it get up to around 500 degrees for a few minutes to burn any possible junk off the cooking grate and the inside of the kettle. It got up to 500 real fast. After a few minutes I closed up some of the vents to bring the temperature down some to cook the chicken. Once it hit 350 I put the chicken on. The temperature continued to drop to around 250 and I had a hard time to get the temp back up through out the whole cook, even with the vents wide open. Have no idea why. Should I have used more charcoal off the start. I did have alot of real estate on the cooking grate covered by the chicken so maybe that cut down on the flow. I have cooking on my UDS down pat so I figured this should be no brainer, but I guess not.

[Brassjc]

Interested to read other people's thoughts. Personally I think you need a little more charcoal if you are spreading one chimney's worth across the whole area, but I prefer to have too much than too little.


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[LiquidOcelot]

most likely because you put cold and/or ambient temp chicken on a hot grill. the cool chicken sucked the heat away from the inside of the grill. next time leave the lid off for a few mins to compensate let the chicken warm up and then toss on the lid

[WMT]

Yeah that was my initial thoughts also. They was only a single layer and there were a few small bare spots where there was no charcoal. My chimney holds 80 birquets do they make bigger ones.

[MacEggs]

No need for a bigger chimney. 

I know that it was your initial burn on a brand-new kettle, but normally less than 40 briquets will get the job done for this type of cook.

Spreading out the charcoal like you did does not allow any "safe zone" / "indirect" cooking area and the charcoal tends to burn-out quicker.
Bank the charcoal, or I recommend using the basket(s).  One or both, either opposite each other, or in the centre with the meat around the perimeter.

Once you have your custom basket made, you should not have any problems.  Indirect cooking on a kettle is the best way to cook most meats, IMO.

Whatever happens, do not get frustrated, and continue to try different set-ups.  Your taste-buds will thank you.   

[HoosierKettle]

Banking coals as maceggs mentions works well, but I like to grill direct for things that will cook fairly quickly.  A full lit chimney is enough coal.  Where you went wrong was trying to get temp down to 350.  It kept falling and it takes a while to recover.  You could have put your lid ajar but that would have been at the risk of torching the food if not careful.

My method for direct cooking is pretty fool proof.  Dump full lit chimney and spread even.  Close bottom vent to half open.  Leave top vent to wide open. Put lid on for a couple minutes to calm the coals down if needed.  Place food on grill.  That's it.  You will not have flare ups with bottom damper half open and it also keeps temp in check.  Check on food every 5-10 minutes, turn, rotate as needed until done.  Don't bother looking at the therm.  It's not needed on hot cooks that last less than an hour.

[Hell Fire Grill]

It sounds alot like a high moisture content in the charcoal to me. Typically a slow start followed by a huge blast of heat then an endless fizzel...

Even with perfect coal arrangement if they're never snuffed you'll have several incompletely burnt coals left on the fire grate the next day.

Otherwise:

I havent used brickets in several years but IIRC you should have a solid 30-40 minutes of prime cook time after you dump your load. Less if the coals were rageing in the chimney till they all turned white. After its past its prime itll never gain heat again, the temp will only gradually fall.

You burnt some of that time sanitizing + 10 minutes choking. so there were less than 20-30 minutes left of your charcoals prime ability after that. Which is questionably enough to time to do a really good job cooking a full grate of fryer breasts.

Choking the coals can kill some of them permanently, especially when they're spread thin, and they'll never relight without catching fire directly form a heat source after that. Like contacting an ember or flame.

When your cooking (especially with a full grate) there will be juice dripping making steam & smoke that tends to fizzle your sizzle a little more. At this point the O2 level in the grill is way low and the coals are getting a shower. Any meat enhancement is working against you too.



All the previous posts offer workable advise. IMO.







The core of your cookout is based on your fuel because the kettle does a great job helping you manage the fire, so the learning curve there is minimal. As far as the fuel goes, if you make sure it can burn to the best of its ability before its lit you'll be aligned with success from the start. All that is required for that is good DRY charcoal & a bit of fire management. How & where charcoal is stored makes some difference in how it'll perform. My best advice for your charcoal is to store it off any dirt or concrete floors, on a pallet or other wood runners, that allow air circulating all around. During long term storage charcoal will practically pull moisture from those surfaces through the bag. Always keep your bags closed and/or lightly covered, a wide open bag will absorb moisture in the air almost as fast as it would if you threw it in a lake. Keep the bags away from any appliances like washer, freezer or fridge. Since your in the great white north it won't hurt to store a bag in the house for a few days before you start using it, maybe cut a small hole for evaporation if you thinks its really moist.

IMO starting with dry fuel gives the best results because it can perform to its best ability. You'll get more heat, more consistent burns, more even liting and better predictability from dry char than moist.

Part of the job of fire manager is to make sure the char can burn efficiently and effectively. To do that is simple all you need to do is arrange the char so there are no gaps in the coal bed where the coals aren't contacting other coals. If the coals aren't touching its highly unlikely the fire will jump from one brix to another.  Lit charcoal will never meet its potential if the coals cant use air drawn into direct proximity by other lit coals, in effect bombarding/stoking each other.

On your next cookout try covering @3/4 of the fire grate so all the DRY char is forced to contact. It dont all have to be lit as long as its contacting. You'll automatically have your "safe zone" that way and some extended burn time too. 

[WMT]

I think your're onto something hell fire, because Now that I think about it, the birquets that I used were in a enclosed container through out the winter and when I brought them out a couple weeks ago there was moisture in the container. Also banking the coals or using the coal baskets like MacEgg and HoosierKettle mentioned, sounds like a good idea to create the two temp zones. Startining to make sence now. Like I said I have done a ton of cooking on my UDS but not a charcoal grill. Different beast and different technique i guess. Starting 4 days off tommorow and don't plan on cooking a meal in the house, it's all going to be over the kettle, UDS, or the Camp chef stove so I'm sure I should get a prety good handle on it by the end. Thanks for the tips guys.