Cooking Barbecue Chicken on the Rotisserie Spit

Using the rotisserie spit for cooking barbecue chicken is indeed an art form but more because of the laws of physics. I always end up inserting the rotisserie or barbecue spit rod quite a few times in order to balance the bird. It’s important to do so to make for a good all round cooking and take the strain of the spit motor.

Here's my barbecue chicken "ready for the off" just lightly seasoned.

The easiest way to balance out the barbecue spit rod is to take a leaf out of the way it’s done at the butcher or deli. Do more than one and do take care when both from a safety perspective when threading the spit rod.

Set the barbecue spit off when the fire is hot and this will nicely brown the outside of the bird and it’ll then gently cook through as your fire naturally subsides.

Cooking chicken this way will take about 90 minutes and if you keep basting as you go it’s sure to stay moist and succulent. Prick it with a skewer and if the juices run clear then you know it’s done.

If you want to use an instant read bbq thermometer then look for a reading of 165°F in the breast and 180°F in the thighs and wings.

Equipment-wise I like to use a portable grill, fire at the side and the all important drip tray. Perfect for catching the drips and basting, but also protecting the fire from excessive fat that may cause flames and your fire to burn quicker.

Depending on the type of grill that you have then there are different ways to set up. Take a look at the drawings below and I hope that this will give you guidance. (Apologies for not drawing a chicken on the rotisserie but I'm not great with a pen and paper!).

You can see in both the set up above and below that the fire is offset. This prevents the meat from dripping excessively onto the heat (and losing the juice) and also the opportunity to use a drip tray.

When cooking barbecue chicken using either of the set ups above it's essential to have a grill with a lid because this will keep the heat in.

Frustratingly rotisserie cooking is something that you cannot do on a kamado... until now! This picture below is of the Monolith rotisserie innovation which simply sits on top of the kamado and seals with the lid down thanks to is angled frame. What's also great is that you have the opportunity to cook on single spit as you would for a whole chicken and there's also the facility to insert 7 Monolith stainless steel skewers which are rotated by the motor.