Rosle Grill Review - Indirect Cooking

Good Indirect cooking and temperature control are the paramount features of great BBQ Grills.  After one very successful (and first attempt) indirect roasting of a whole chicken I am amazed at how well the Rösle Kettle Grill delivered.  Temperature control is the staple of high end grills in the thousand dollar range and the most accurate tend to be the ceramic styles (Kamado, Big Green Egg, et al).  However this high end Rösle Kettle Grill performed remarkably.  The results pictured here back up my claim that this was arguably the most moist (say that two times fast) whole chicken I’ve cooked in many years.

The Indirect Method of Grilling

Indirect grilling is recommended for any foodstuffs that are likely to take more than 20 minutes to grill without drying out or burning the food.  By indirect you get the heat out from under the food items and circulating up and around your food (lid down of course).  This allows the food to cook fully (to temperature).  Whole chickens are an excellent example of something that requires the indirect method which is demonstrated below.
The Set Up
1)    Your Rösle Kettle Grill comes with two Charcoal Baskets.  They are placed on the right and left hand side of the Charcoal Grid and filled with charcoal.  A drip pan (aluminum foil) is placed between the baskets to catch drippings from the food which reduces clean up substantially.
2)    Light the briquettes and allow to heat up until covered with a light coating of ash 10-20 minutes for high quality briquettes.   Note the cooking grid feature that allows you to add charcoal briquettes DURING a long cook if necessary without removing the grid or your food (a unique feature of the Rösle Kettle Grill.

 

The Cook

For this cook we have chosen to prepare a whole free-range chicken.  Dusted with a combination of pre-mixed commercial poultry seasonings and topped with two tablespoons of unsalted butter (around the neck opening).  Pictured here is the Rösle Chicken Roaster #25078 we used for this cook.  The grid is large enough to accommodate a minimum of two large whole chickens and clearly could handle a large turkey. 

1. Close the dome and dial in the temperature using the top and bottom dampers.  This is where the Rösle REALLY performed.  It only took me about 20 minutes to dial in 350 degrees Fahrenheit and make it stable.  Remarkable for the first time out. 
2. NOTE TO ALL USA users! The German Engineering in the Thermometer places the dominate numbers in Celsius…and being used to non metric thermometers, I quickly ran the heat up to 400 Celsius before noticing... Place the chicken on the roaster and center on the grid (place a monitoring thermometer in the meat if you choose) and close the lid.  RESIST THE URGE TO WATCH IT COOK!