Subscribe Feed (RSS)Tandoori Experiment 2
August 11th, 2008 by Michelle | Filed under Ceramic Cooker.We had an almost successful first try at using our ceramic cooker as a tandoor oven. We made some changes and tried again.
Recap of issues from the first try
The first attempt resulted in chicken that was unevenly done — the edge pieces were well cooked, but the middle ones were not quite done.
We had to be gentle with the skewers or the meat would slide off the bottom of the skewers.
We fried the gasket in the BGE by using a platesetter that redirected the heat to the gasket area.
Changes for this attempt
We removed the platesetter and replaced it with a steel grate filled with ceramic briquettes that was placed directly on the charcoal:
Plate of ceramic briquettes on charcoal
This avoids directing heat to the gasket, gives us a taller cooking area (more like a regular tandoor oven), gives hotter direct heat to the skewers and the ceramic briquettes will catch some of any drippings, limiting flare up. Also, since the skewer tips will nestle directly into the hot briquettes, the skewers should get good and hot and transmit heat to the inside of the meat.
We also used the skewers upside-down to help prevent meat loss and to provide a wider stop for the bottom of the skewer. Here’s how the skewers were loaded into the cooker:
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Blip.tv video.And here’s a view into the top of the cooker:
View into cooker loaded with tandoori skewers
And, lastly, we reduced the dome temperature to 400 to 500 degrees. The first attempt used temps over 500 degrees. Lower temps are achieved with lower airflow which can decrease moisture loss and result (we hope) in juicier meat. It does increase cooking time, though, which can have the opposite effect. To help limit airflow, we improvised a top:
Aluminum foil stopper for top vent
Experiment 2 results
This time the chicken was more uniformly done and still juicy. This is a more successful tandoor cooking setup.
Our finished chicken:
Finished tandoori chicken, on skewers
Hi! I just got my large BGE and this looks like a fantastic way to do tandoor style cooking (one of the reasons I GOT the Egg!)
Do you have any tips on where to find the long metal skewers that you’re using?
Yes, as a matter of fact. The ones we’ve used so far are from a Persian market. Although they work, they aren’t exactly the type we want to use. We wanted something a little bit longer, more round than flat, and without the decorative twist by the hook.
So we asked the fine folks at Egg Accessories to make some for us and should have some of these arriving tomorrow to test out. We’ll post Experiment 3 with our results!
Nice! I look forward to the next installment.
Hey, I love Indian food and particularly food cooked in a tandoor oven. If you’re looking for the proper implements to use in a tandoor, you might check out this website: http://www.woodstone-corp.com/products_tandoor_accessories.htm
There are other types of skewers used with tandoors, but if you’re trying to eliminate food falling off your skewer… the one I recommended came from a tandoor manufacturing website. Good luck if you haven’t already found a solution to your problem. Brad
Yes, we looked at those when trying to find a good solution. But that company wants $60 EACH. It was much cheaper having Egg Accessories make some to our specification.
This is brilliant! Thank you for sharing. I will definitely have to give this a try on my Big Green Egg.