So I went in search of a charcoal chimney thingee but every one that I found (Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, Publix, Winn/Dixie) was 8" in diameter and my rinky-dink charcoal grill ($9.99) is only 12" across, so it seems a tad pointless to spend $14.99 on that tool.
BUT I did buy a charcoal starter gizmo. It's basically a giant's hot-water heating element for his cup of tea. Worked BEAUTIFULLY to get the coal burning without adding lighter fluid. Hope started to simmer on the back bunner.
Still, everyone had mentioned that cooking it over the grill wasn't long enough to cook it so I did my 20 minutes skin side down in the cast iron skillet and then moved it out to the coals once they were hot white.
This is the part you need to imagine in slo-motion. I have the partially cooked pieces of chicken already sitting on the greased grill which is itself sitting on a large platter. I have the platter tightly in hand, but gravity will have its day and in a split second the chicken did a half-gainer and SPLATTTT! dropped to the drive way as I silently mouthed "oh, shi-....rachi sauce!"
Only that wasn't what I said.
I'm not proud of what I did next, but I picked that chicken RIGHT UP and put it BACK on the grill and started the damned process of cooking it over the coals as specified by God and the Holy Gospel.
Here and now I will state that I will never go through this again. The minor additional flavor wasn't worth the time, the money or the grease spot on my driveway when I am perfectly happy with the results from cooking in a cast iron skillet.
See below for cast iron skillet thighs which never touched a driveway.
https://recipeswap.org/fun/wp-content/uploads/Finer_Kitchens/2015%20Marilyn/Chick.jpg~original
BUT I did buy a charcoal starter gizmo. It's basically a giant's hot-water heating element for his cup of tea. Worked BEAUTIFULLY to get the coal burning without adding lighter fluid. Hope started to simmer on the back bunner.
Still, everyone had mentioned that cooking it over the grill wasn't long enough to cook it so I did my 20 minutes skin side down in the cast iron skillet and then moved it out to the coals once they were hot white.
This is the part you need to imagine in slo-motion. I have the partially cooked pieces of chicken already sitting on the greased grill which is itself sitting on a large platter. I have the platter tightly in hand, but gravity will have its day and in a split second the chicken did a half-gainer and SPLATTTT! dropped to the drive way as I silently mouthed "oh, shi-....rachi sauce!"
Only that wasn't what I said.
I'm not proud of what I did next, but I picked that chicken RIGHT UP and put it BACK on the grill and started the damned process of cooking it over the coals as specified by God and the Holy Gospel.
Here and now I will state that I will never go through this again. The minor additional flavor wasn't worth the time, the money or the grease spot on my driveway when I am perfectly happy with the results from cooking in a cast iron skillet.
See below for cast iron skillet thighs which never touched a driveway.
https://recipeswap.org/fun/wp-content/uploads/Finer_Kitchens/2015%20Marilyn/Chick.jpg~original
