Getting started with the Monolith BBQ

I spent years fantasising about buying a ceramic kamado bbq, followed by months of researching the best brand and model – Big Green Egg? Monolith?? Kamado Joe??? – then I took the plunge and bought a Monolith Classic Pro 2.0. A few weeks later, the giant box arrived and we spent a couple of hours getting it set up and into position.

Until this point, I’d only ever read rave reviews of these one-man-bands of the cooking world. From this point on, every book or article I came across seemed to fixate on backdraughts, temperatures raging out of control, and how it can take months of trialling to ‘master’ your kamado. Now, I am failure-adverse at the best of times, but never more so than when it comes to cooking. I don’t expect every dish I cook to be perfect first time, but the thought of repeated inedible failures (not to mention the possible loss of my eyebrows) is a big turn-off for me.

A week after taking delivery, we went away for the Easter holidays. On our return, I got sidetracked with the kitchen refurb and a busy work schedule. Then it was the height of summer and it didn’t seem safe to start tinkering with an enormous bucket of fire while the children were dashing round the garden. Then it was too rainy… then too cold… and all of a sudden it was nearly 2 years later and it had become the elephant in the corner of the patio that we tacitly agreed not to talk about.

Tackling the elephant on the veranda

I’m not a big one for New Year’s resolutions, but I do find myself hankering after a bit of self-improvement in January. My kitchen is currently full of kombucha, kefir, sauerkraut and kimchi all bubbling away; my diary now comes with added yoga and I find myself taking time to do the breathing exercises that petered out in the run-up to Christmas. What better time to tackle The Monolith?!

To mitigate the initial failure rate, I scoured the internet and for advice and read three books. Hot Coals, by Jeroen Hazebroek and Leonard Elenbaas was incredibly helpful in terms of setting up for all the different styles of cooking, especially as information from the UK branch of Monolith is a little scanty. For recipe ideas and timings, I can tell that Grillstock – The BBQ Book, by Jon Finch and Ben Merrington and Pitt Cue Co. The Cook Book are going to come in very handy. These are all from UK/Europe, so everything’s in centigrade and there’s no US terminology and brands to get confused with.

What should I cook for the first time on my Monolith BBQ?

I decided not to be too ambitious for the Monolith’s first outing. The style of cooking that I’m most interested in trying is hot-smoking and slow cooking, or I suppose the sort of slow smoky cooking that Americans would call ‘barbecuing’. Rather than risk ruining a beautiful piece of pork neck, beef brisket or lamb shoulder, I opted for chicken leg quarters. Quicker to cook, cheap as chips and ultimately expendable if it all went tits-up.

I didn’t give myself the pressure of inviting loads of people round for dinner, as any successful chicken would be easy to repurpose over the next few days. It also gave me a chance to try a few different prep methods to see which worked best for next time. To get the most out of my charcoal, I lined up aubergines and spring onions to cook over the grill when the chicken was finished.

I chose a day when my diary was clear of work, the children were at school and the sky was a brilliant blue. To my utter delight and astonishment, it went really well! If anyone out there is looking to fire up their ceramic BBQ for the first time and is having a bit of a dither about where to start, I hope the following is helpful.

Slow-cooked smoky chicken quarters on the Monolith

  1. Set up the Smartgrid system with the heat deflectors on the bottom, followed by the drip trays filled 1/3 full of water. Add the semi-circle grills and arrange your chicken leg quarters on top. Set aside somewhere handy.
  2. Take the fire basket out of the Monolith – it’s easier to keep the temperature low without the extra ventilation it provides. Fill the Monolith with charcoal to the join between the segmented area of fire-brick and upper ring of firebrick – this should leave 10-15 cm between the coals and the heat deflector plates.
  3. Use the Monolighter to light a piece of charcoal in the middle of the top layer of coals (keep going for a minute or two until it flames when you turn off the lighter).
  4. Close the lid, open the top and bottom vents fully and wait until the temperature gauge reaches 110°C – this should only take 5-10 minutes, so don’t wander off!
  5. Reduce the bottom vent to 1 cm and reduce the top vent to a thin crescent. This should stabilise the temperature.
  6. Scatter a handful of woodchips over the charcoal (I used cherry wood) – spreading them out means they’ll ignite one by one over the course of the cook.
  7. Put the Smartgrid system in place and close the lid.
  8. Wait for 10 minutes then check the temperature. It should be between 110°C and 140°C. Adjust the top vent if you need to, but leave 10 minutes between each fiddle, as it takes a while for each action to take effect.
  9. Cook for 2 hours or until the centre of the thickest part of each chicken quarter reaches 77°C. I used a Thermapen probe thermometer, as the meat wasn’t thick enough to use my nifty new Meater.
  10. Remove the Smartgrid system, then widen the top vent to halfway and the bottom vent to 5 cm.
  11. Carefully remove the drip trays and heat deflectors from the Smartgrid, then return the Smartgrid to the Monolith.
  12. The temperature should rise and stabilize between 200°C and 240°C over the next few minutes (you can reduce the top vent a bit if you need to though). You can now colour and crisp the skin of the chicken. Keep the lid shut and check it every 5 minutes, turning as necessary.

When the chicken is beautifully bronzed, you can either shut down the Monolith by closing both vents fully, or make use of the hot coals by finding some other things to cook! I grilled some big spring onions for a few minutes on each side and charred whole aubergines for making baba ganoush and all those other delicious Middle Eastern salads. The aubergines will stay on there happily for up to an hour, turning every 15 minutes. They should end up charred on the outside and super soft on the inside.

I made use of all the delicious sticky bits that had been captured by the drip tray, deglazing them on the hob in the same way you’d usually treat the roasting tin. If you’re shredding the chicken, you can make a quick bit of stock from the bones and use that to deglaze the trays. It will be the basis for some seriously flavoursome, smoky gravy!

Chicken trials

There are several schools of thought on the best way to prep your meat before smoking or grilling, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to try out a couple.

Batch 1: Simply seasoned with salt and pepper, just before cooking (I wrapped the end of the drumstick in foil so I could tell which one was which).

Batch 2: Wet brined for 24 hours. I made a 5% brine by dissolving 36 g of sea salt in 300 ml of hot water, then added 450 ml cold water to bring the temperature down. I added a few thyme sprigs and 4 squashed garlic cloves to add a hint of chicken-friendly flavour, then let it cool completely. I poured the brine into a large freezer bag, added the chicken and chilled in the fridge overnight. Pat the chicken dry with kitchen paper before cooking.

Batch 3: Dry rub for 24 hours. I made a simple rub from 2 tbsp Maldon sea salt (ground fine with a pestle and mortar), 2 tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika, 1 tbsp onion salt, ½ tbsp freshly ground black pepper and ½ tbsp celery salt. I rubbed a spoonful into two of the chicken quarters, then left them uncovered in the fridge overnight on a wire rack. There was plenty of rub leftover for next time – just transfer it to an airtight jar.

The verdict!

If you’re super short of time, it’s fine to just season and crack on – batch 1 was very tasty, like classic but slightly smoky roast chicken. The skin crisped up quite well, though I could have taken the grilling a bit further.

Batch 3 with the dry rub was very flavoursome and that mix complimented the smoke well. The inside was more tender than the simply seasoned version, though it’s a very salty mix, so don’t be too liberal with the rub! This one worked best shredded from the bone and eaten in a soft flour tortilla with some punchy coleslaw, as it had enough flavour to stand out from the rest of the ingredients.

My absolute favourite has to be batch 2 though. The meat was so juicy and tender, the skin golden and crisp with a smooth creamy layer of fat just underneath. Absolute game changer! The garlic and thyme were just detectable, but not in an overpowering way. Brining really helped the smoke infuse all the way into the meat too. This is the best method if you’re serving the chicken on its own where all the textures and delicate flavours can be enjoyed. Perfect as the centrepiece of a classic roast.



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