Indirect Cooking
Well to start out indirect cooking really does need a lid as this causes the heat to flow around the meat that you are cooking and having no lid will not achieve anything. You can cook so much with this method, pizza, roast, rib racks, whole pig (if you have large enough BBQ), chocolate brownie, chicken legs and more. The method is to have the coals set up either apart with a gap in the middle or with the coals to one side.
You can see in the photos that on the Webber BBQ's they have dividers which help keep the coals in one place. These can be put into the coal grate with which ever size gap you want to use, if you don't have these for your BBQ then you can buy baskets which you put onto your coal grate and place the coals into the baskets. Also baskets do allow you to be able to move the coals around so if you was doing direct cooking to start with you would have them placed together. Then when you want to go to indirect cooking just pull the baskets apart.
Indirect cooking also allows for you to control the heat with which you are cooking, with the Webber I have it has vents onto and below which control the heat. The main vent on the lid is the main control of that heat, if you shut it off don't leave it much longer than 10 minutes, this should help reduce your heat a lot but if you find you want the heat lower then you can shut the bottom vent half way but don't shut it any more. If you do then it will put the coals out and you will have to start over again which is no fun for anyone.
Indirect cooking also allows for you to control the heat with which you are cooking, with the Webber I have it has vents onto and below which control the heat. The main vent on the lid is the main control of that heat, if you shut it off don't leave it much longer than 10 minutes, this should help reduce your heat a lot but if you find you want the heat lower then you can shut the bottom vent half way but don't shut it any more. If you do then it will put the coals out and you will have to start over again which is no fun for anyone.
This shows how you really can cook anything on your BBQ, Toad In The Hole and it cooks really well as you can get such a high heat from the coals.
Another example this time Chilli Con Carne, I got the heat nice and low for this, around 150/160C and cooked it for about 2 and half hours. What you have to remember is if you are using charcoal or cheap briquettes you will need to top them up, if you use Weber briquettes you will find they burn for hours and for this cook time they didn't need any extra.
This is my turkey that I did for boxing day, was on the BBQ for nearly 4 hours and I added a few extra briquettes half way through just to stop the heat dropping to low. You won't get a turkey as juicy as this cooked in the oven! It went down very well with the family.
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