Tom McBee: Hello, I am Tom McBee for PK grills, the one and only portables kitchen cast aluminum grill. Today, we are going to be showing you the techniques used for direct and indirect cooking. But first of all let’s define direct and indirect cooking. Direct cooking means using direct heat or placing the meat directly above the fire. This technique is used when the results you are looking for is seared meat or at least quick cooked meats such as steaks, burgers or chops. Indirect cooking is just the opposite of direct cooking. In fact, Indirect cooking usually involves a much bigger piece of meat such as a pork roast, a whole chicken or turkey. For direct cooking there is a couple of things to remember. First of all, don’t pile the charcoal around the casting walls. Place it in the middle of the grate. Make sure your that your charcoal is hot, very hot before you start to cook.
If you put the meat on the grill before the charcoal is ready, a couple of things could happen you could pick up a flavor of the fluid or the charcoal. Now one way that I have found to light charcoal is with one of these handy little chimneys. Put the charcoal on the top, put newspaper underneath and simply light the newspaper. In just a few minutes, you’ll have hot coals.
Well, it looks like our charcoal is ready. So all we need to do now is get it into the PK. Now, since I want my grill really hot, I am going to close the lid and open the vents, both vents on top and both the dampers underneath. Today I’m cooking one of my favorite steaks the RIBEYE! Now, the reason I like this cut of meat is that it’s the most tender cut of beef there is and because of the marbling in the steak, there is plenty of flavor.
I have a ribeye steak, you have been marinating for about 30 to 45 minutes at room temperature. The marinade I like to use is made from olive oil and butter, chopped garlic and lemon juice and then also some grill seasoning. Now that I’m ready to cook, I want to adjust the vents on the top of the grill and the damper underneath. The vents above the fire and dampers below need to be closed one-third to one-half depending on the amount of charcoal you use.
Our fire is ready! So we will just take a pair of tongs. Place on marinated steak on the PK Grill. Now, an easy way to control flare that we have here is just by closing the top vents on the grill. The secret is to put your meat on the grill and let the PK do the work. The airtight seal of the PK gives you total control of the flares. The only air that gets in is the air you let in. A steak will take about five to seven minutes per side depending on how thick a cut of meat do you have. Well, our steak is ready, now we are ready to serve it. It's a delicious ribeye steak right off the PK Grill. Now that’s a ribeye steak!!!!! A PK ribeye steak.
For Indirect cooking all you have to do is to add charcoal to the PK by using our charcoal chimney. Indirect cooking means that we built a fire on one side and place our meat indirectly on the other side. We will have more charcoal in and a bigger fire, but remember you will need that, you are cooking Indirect and slower. At this point we will need to open up all the vents on the top and the bottom to allow the entire surface of the grill to get hot. I have a well seasoned pork roast, and a whole chicken that we’re going to be cooking (Indirectly) or slow roasting in the Portable Kitchen Grill. I can’t wait for this to get ready.
Now, since we are cooking indirectly, remember we are going to place the meat on the opposite side than we have the fire. The fire is over here, the meat goes on the back. We can slow roast or cook indirectly. Once your meat is on for indirect cooking, you’ll need to adjust all your vents. Let’s start with the vents over the meat by opening one-third and the damper below the meat shut completely off. The vent over the fire should be completely closed. Once this is done the heat and smoke will circulate like a convection oven. The only time you should lift the lid on your grill is to add charcoal or your favorite wood chips for smoking. Normally, I like to add the wood chips about the last hour of cooking. When you’re finished, your family and friends are going to love anything that comes off the PK Grill.
Thanks for watching today, for the James family and the PK Grill, I’m Tom McBee, see you next time.
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