Indirect Charcoal Grilling, Weber style

[TboneD]

Lately I can't help but notice a lot of gadgetry being sold for kettle grills, and I've talked to a lot of folks that aren't really aware of how efficient cooking indirect in a Weber kettle is. And the thing is, no gadgets are required. The neat thing and the biggest surprise is how even the temps are across the cooking grate that is opposite the coal's side. (It might be obvious but that's what we call the "indirect heat" side, and the part of the cooking grate over the coals the "direct heat" side.

So anyhow I thought I'd just post some pics that might show what I'm talking about, and the only real gadgets I'm gonna recommend is a pair of Weber charcoal baskets. You can sear over them, put them to the sides and cook indirect, or do as my buddy taught me and take them apart. When needing a thick bed of coals opposite of what we want to cook indirect, we use the straight sides together as a sort of adjustable charcoal fence. So here we go, in no particular order. Just going through my phone pics that me and my buddy send each other.

So if you wonder if all I cook is chicken, I use an offset smoker for my BBQ cuts. I've done some really good ribs on Weber kettles, though. You just have to use a bigger pile of charcoal, and start with only part of it lit. Helps to have a good fitting lid, as well. So if you don't start with too much lit charcoal, the lid fit is good, and your vents are working properly, you can manage a five or six hour rib cook with just a few vent adjustments and never even have to add any charcoal. You just mix in a few small wood chunks in with the unlit charcoal and that's where your smoke will come from. Anyhow, I hope someone learned something. Gonna smoke some pork butts this weekend since the store has em on sale and deer season is over.


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[AllOutdoors]

Re: Indirect Charcoal Grilling, Weber style

I use the indirect method quite frequently. A basket on each side and cook in the middle.

 

[TboneD]

Re: Indirect Charcoal Grilling, Weber style

And here's a pic after I spun the grate around to crisp the skin directly over the coals:

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[TboneD]

Indirect Charcoal Grilling, Weber style

I use the indirect method quite frequently. A basket on each side and cook in the middle.

Yep. And from what I hear, the baskets on either side work especially well if you have a rotisserie in the middle of them. My wife got me one for Christmas so hopefully I'll use it this week and maybe post a pic.

But regarding the baskets for grate level indirect cooking, you'd be surprised how efficient cooking indirect without the baskets is. I've grilled pork loins and chicken in between the baskets a lot. I've also done a lot of two zone indirect cooking without them, simply because I could fit more chicken or ribs on the grill. But the lightbulb came on when I got my big 27.75" Weber kettle. They come with the same charcoal baskets, so I went ahead and tried them out with some thighs like I'd done on my 22.5" grills. Well, what I quickly found out was that the heat was going to the lid, and that I probably could get crisper chicken skin with the same amount of charcoal by just going two zone indirect. And the other thing is really the point of my thread in the first place. See all those pics of indirect two zone setups in my OP? What I need to point out is that I didn't rotate pieces around any, and the pieces closest to the coals usually weren't done any quicker than the ones farthest away. The heat in the kettle radiates around it like that and that's what makes it so cool! But the baskets are cool as well. I always use them when I reverse sear flat iron steaks. Tomorrow I'll try to post a pic of taking the baskets apart to make a coal fence. You just can't see it but it's in some of those shots, or at least the spatchcocked birds and probably the larger leg quarters.


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[catman529]

Re: Indirect Charcoal Grilling, Weber style

I learned a few things there, thanks for sharing. When you light part of the charcoal, do you put the lit charcoal on one end, or on top, or underneath the unlit coals? Do the wood chunks ever catch fire?


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[slinger]

Re: Indirect Charcoal Grilling, Weber style

I grill indirect all the time & love my Weber grill. Seeing your pics makes me hungry!

 

[moondawg]

Re: Indirect Charcoal Grilling, Weber style

Do you ever have to add more charcoal? If so how would you do that? Just add unlit charcoal on top of the already burned charcoal? Or use a charcoal chimney to burn a new batch, and then pour that on top of the already existing charcoal?

 

[TboneD]

Re: Indirect Charcoal Grilling, Weber style

I learned a few things there, thanks for sharing. When you light part of the charcoal, do you put the lit charcoal on one end, or on top, or underneath the unlit coals? Do the wood chunks ever catch fire?


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Lit charcoal on top of unlit, and lit at the end of a "fuse" of unlit charcoal will both work. The fuse or encirclement strategy is more for butts and briskets, because you can smoke like this for a long time with little futzing. Honestly, I've never used it because I've always used a smoker for butts or briskets. Keep in mind that if using briquettes, some folks, myself included, are "sensitive" to briquette charcoal smoke when they're not burning cleanly. It says right on every bag of Kingsford not to use until all the briquettes are ashed over, but you don't need to go that far. Obviously, it would be a pain and highly inefficient to keep dumping in a few lit briquettes at a time for a long low and slow cook. (With lump charcoal, it's not really an issue. That's what I've used most of the time if smoking ribs or turkeys in a kettle.) Anyhow, if you give the briquettes just a little time after getting some lit ones on and before putting the meat on, you'll notice the smoke will "clean up" to nearly invisible (as long as the wood isn't smoking yet and your grill is fairly clean). Here's how Chris Lilly of Big Bob Gibson BBQ fame suggests to cook a pork butt in a kettle grill. (I'd just use water instead of juice.) He's been or is still sponsored by Kingsford, so I guess that's why he doesn't have any wood chunks to distract from the "K" charcoal in this photo, taken from "Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book", which is a pretty good one, by the way.

Regarding the wood, there's not enough air in a kettle for the wood to catch fire with the lid on. So you want the kind of grate that has the hinged sides. Not only are they handy for adding charcoal or wood, but for also for removing any wood that starts putting off nasty smoke after checking with the lid off. It's like how if someone takes a piece of wood out of a fire. Notice how it will start smoking something awful, like if you put the fire out with water. That's what happens to the wood if it hasn't burnt down much when we take the lid off to check things, and it catches flame. So with the hinged grate if I see any wood catch fire I'll usually just remove it before putting the lid back on and finishing the cook. With charcoal smoking we just want a "kiss of smoke" toward the beginning of the cook anyhow, so 99% of the time I wouldn't add any wood later during the cook on a kettle grill. Rather, I bury wood chunks in the unlit charcoal or on top. Hope that helps. Good questions.


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[catman529]

Re: Indirect Charcoal Grilling, Weber style

Thanks again, I learn something new every time you post. I like that setup in the pic. Might try it with lump charcoal.


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[TboneD]

Re: Indirect Charcoal Grilling, Weber style

Thanks again, I learn something new every time you post. I like that setup in the pic. Might try it with lump charcoal.


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Just remember how much more sensitive lump is to oxygen and " deprivation and you should be fine. And don't start with too much lit. If you haven't smoked ribs on your kettle yet you might try banking a bunch of unlit lump with a few small chunks of hickory or fruit wood mixed in to one side of the kettle, and dumping on half or less of a lit (but not fully enflamed) chimney on top. Putting a water pan on the grate over the charcoal will add some humidity and help moderate the temp. Just open or shut your vents as needed but don't make big changes, and wait to see what happens between vent adjustments. If your grill doesn't have a gauge you can clip a therm through the top vent. If you don't plan on wrapping them in foil at some point, ideally you want the grate temp to be somewhere north or south 25* or so of 250*F. Grate temp will be roughly 50* less than your therm if it's over the meat side. But if your coals get too hot just foil the ribs with a dash of AJ when they look good. This will keep their outside bark from being like jerky and help with getting them fall off the bone tender like so many folks like. Easy to overcook em though, so be careful. Hope that helps and let us know how your BBQ turns out next time.


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[TN Song Dog]

Some grill ninjas here! Great thread

 

[TboneD]

Re: Indirect Charcoal Grilling, Weber style

Do you ever have to add more charcoal? If so how would you do that? Just add unlit charcoal on top of the already burned charcoal? Or use a charcoal chimney to burn a new batch, and then pour that on top of the already existing charcoal?

Moondawg, as long as you have lit and unlit charcoal in your kettle during BBQ smokes, you shouldn't have to add charcoal each and every cook. Obviously you'll need to add some on a pork butt or brisket cook, but I've rarely needed to add any during rib or turkey smokes, even when using good lump. For whole chickens you might want a little unlit in the grill, but I usually butterfly (spatchcock) them to make them cook faster and more evenly, just using all lit briquettes on one side. Back to cooking BBQ cuts and your kettle grill, though. Before doing any long smokes I'd get out a tape measure to check your lid and bowl for an out of round condition. GENTLY tweak each A LITTLE, only as needed, to get a better seal. This will help you better keep your coals under control with the vents. I've yet to crack the porcelain enamel but please don't hold me liable. Anyhow, when you do need to add charcoal, you don't want to add unlit briquettes on top of lit because they'll smoke pretty nasty for a good while. I'd just dump a partial chimney of lit on top of the existing coals. Weber sells a compact charcoal chimney that is quite handy for adding or starting during BBQ cooks. It's the one I now take on trips with my little smokey Joe or Jumbo Joe grills. Good luck next kettle cook.


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[TboneD]

Re: Indirect Charcoal Grilling, Weber style

I grill indirect all the time & love my Weber grill. Seeing your pics makes me hungry!

Then help me out, Slinger! Post some pics sometime. For some reason or another most folks here in the south just don't know how great Weber kettles are and we need to spread the word. My cousin already had a smoker and his son welded him a great big grill, as well. But know what he got last year? A Weber Performer. Betcha if I start sending him rotisserie chicken or Kettlepizza pics he'll buy one or the other. Lol.


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[MattZ9]

My favorite way to cook chicken. Actually had it last night. Gotta love those weber grills

 

[TboneD]

Re: Indirect Charcoal Grilling, Weber style

Heads up y'all! Kroger has pork back ribs on sale for $2.99 and Publix has St. Louis ribs on sale for $1.99. (I'm going with the latter!) I'll probably be smoking five or six slabs on my stickburner Saturday, but would be plumb tickled if someone would post a pic of some smoked on their Weber. One or two slabs on the grate or three slabs in a rib rack, doesn't matter much....as long as it's with INDIRECT HEAT.


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[slinger]

Re: Indirect Charcoal Grilling, Weber style

I grill indirect all the time & love my Weber grill. Seeing your pics makes me hungry!

Then help me out, Slinger! Post some pics sometime. For some reason or another most folks here in the south just don't know how great Weber kettles are and we need to spread the word. My cousin already had a smoker and his son welded him a great big grill, as well. But know what he got last year? A Weber Performer. Betcha if I start sending him rotisserie chicken or Kettlepizza pics he'll buy one or the other. Lol.


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I'm thinking a kettlepizza is going to be my next purchase!

 

[TboneD]

Re: Indirect Charcoal Grilling, Weber style

I grill indirect all the time & love my Weber grill. Seeing your pics makes me hungry!

Then help me out, Slinger! Post some pics sometime. For some reason or another most folks here in the south just don't know how great Weber kettles are and we need to spread the word. My cousin already had a smoker and his son welded him a great big grill, as well. But know what he got last year? A Weber Performer. Betcha if I start sending him rotisserie chicken or Kettlepizza pics he'll buy one or the other. Lol.


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I'm thinking a kettlepizza is going to be my next purchase!

You probably saw my post on it, but not checking where you are, if you ever drive through middle TN let me know. If I'd had the chance to see a friend use his and taste the results, I'd have ordered one the next day. Thankfully God gave me a really good woman who somehow knew we'd love it. First pizza cook with the inlaws is tomorrow night.


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[Forvols]

Re: Indirect Charcoal Grilling, Weber style

I got a Weber performer for fathers day, first charcoal grill I have had in years. I also still have a nice gas grill and did have a gas smoker. Let me say after using the weber the gas only gets used for quick cooks now. Probably 90% or more of my grilling is on the weber now and indirect. The really cool thing about that is you can put it over the coals to char/chrisp and use indirect for the overall cooking. Even got rid of the gas smoker. Big thing I have learned is I cook to temp now vice "yeah looks done". Also with the weber or any charcoal cooking get the weber charcoal chimney--will get you going quicker and save you money on charcoal usage. Here are some picts all done on the weber mainly indirect except for instances of adding some char/chrisping.

 

[Forvols]

Re: Indirect Charcoal Grilling, Weber style

Couple more picts

 

[TboneD]

Re: Indirect Charcoal Grilling, Weber style

Now that's what I'm talking about! Thanks for posting. Good looking grub for sure and good points about searing and indirect.


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