What is the indirect method of cooking on a barbecue?
To do this you need to have a barbecue that has a lid.
Indirect cooking is done by creating a space in your barbecue where there is no direct heat.
In my diagram you can see that charcoal is heaped on either side leaving the center empty.
In the center place a disposable aluminium (roasting) tray beneath the grill bars, this will act as a drip tray to prevent any flare-up.
Light your charcoal and when the coals are tempered enough (after about 45 minutes) then you can cook food on the center, In fact you can roast a whole chicken or a joint of meat. And by closing the lid of your barbecue you are in effect turning your BBQ into an oven.
I usually marinate a chicken, with olive oil; garlic, citrus fruits, coriander and chilli then roast it, basting the meat from time to time just as you would in a regular oven. Together with the slight smokiness from the grill this will produce a wonderful roasted chicken. I call this South American Roast Chicken.
Turning your barbecue into a oven gives you lots more scope in your out door cooking, indeed I have even baked a cheese cake on a BBQ during cooking demonstrations just to make a dramatic point of what was possible. The important thing to become good at cooking outdoors is to find a way to control the heat. Indirect cooking can also be done on a round barbecue grill as long as it has a lid and that you create a no direct heat zone in the middle.
P.s I will be posting my South American Roast Chicken recipe here sometime in the next couple of weeks.
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2006-04-01 @ 01:38