The chicken rotisserie has really been a hit around the SkyCastle, PB has been working on it, tweaking it, improving it, making it work better and better. We cooked the best chicken to date on it the other evening, I didn’t have to work that day, I brined the chicken overnight in salt water, it cooked for about 2 hours, I added 6 small baking potatoes wrapped in foil for the last hour of cooking. We have been discussing all the other things we could cook on this, I’m thinking corn on the cob, smaller chickens (Cornish game hens) and the such.
Here is what PB had to say about it in his own words:
The professor strikes again!
I (lol, get ready) re-engineered the rotisserie mechanism, trying to add some ‘run time’! Took me all day, runs good, and because I got a gear ratio assembled backwards, lol, I did nothing but add another shining tutorial on my fb page for yall! ——- I’m feelin’ like an ‘Einstein’, lol.
I’m going to get the gears corrected and make a fresh chicken for Wretha as she did not participate in the first two test chickens for obvious reasons! (mainly, so I could be credited with saving her life!) Today she’ll be here all day, home form work, waiting, tick, toc, for the best chicken so far. Actually, she’s preparing and starting the chicken, and I’ll babysit the machine.
Last night she breined, bryned (however), the chicken,,, and she’s gonna be in charge of this one! I’m lettin’ her ‘chef prowess’ shine. Fixin’ that chicken all up with it’s own zip code and everything! She’s gonna have a blast. I guarantee it!
I’ll still act as, ‘spit boy’ because,,,, I like being ‘spit boy’! Just sittin’ there with the weather, tic-toc-ing past… Makes me feel, primitive! Like a million years old! — and that’s worth something!
and
Chicken #3. The Majik Chicken
This was a fresh chicken that Wretha fixed up and it turned out so juicy and with so much flavor! It put me in an instant 9 hour coma! Thank you Wretha, Executive Chef at SkyCastle! Best meal so far.
The heating section is working fine in the rotisserie. I increased the gas flow and added more ‘breathing’ holes. The flame is blue, contrary to the video, as I had bumped the cooker just prior to the video, thereby disturbing some rust (iron oxide) and causing red colored flames. I ran the burner at about 2/3d’s of ‘wide open’ and saved some fuel. Plus, getting things too hot seems to cause a smoke, from the spattering of chicken fat, that imparts bad taste. I’ll make a suitable knob for the gas valve soon.
The rotisserie mechanism ran much better than expected this time. After swapping the chain driven gears and getting the ratios correct, it ran dependably, for an hour and ten minutes on one cycle (length of time to ‘un-spool’ 12 feet of cord once) (chicken cooked for nearly 2.5 hours and and we only reset it once). I was amazed at the amount of run time we got. The new spool works well. As a cycle ends, and the weight is on the ground, the chain is easily removed from the small sprocket allowing the operator to reel up the weighted cord for the next cycle with the crank handle on the spool.
I’m going to add a brake. And perhaps it will double as a ratchet. There is a lot of ‘float’ in the contraption at present, in order to make adjustment easier, and it will all be secured as dependability stabilizes. It is becoming easy to use. It breaks down into light weight parts and easy to clean and re-assemble.
It has now become part of SkyCastle. Forever!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyMNamfNeAI
Another thing I did was to purchase some spit forks, we had been using wire to hold the chicken in place, honestly I didn’t even know if you could buy spit forks, fortunately Amazon is awesome! I found these spit forks made of stainless steel, they did cost more, but I figured they would outlast the chromed ones. Now that I know they work well with our setup, I’ll buy another set so we can cook 2 chickens at the same time. Next thing to do is start inviting our friends over for a chicken dinner.
Here is a previous post about the chicken rotisserie
https://off-grid.net/food/55722/
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