Gas vs Charcoal Grilling
Gas vs Charcoal grilling is always a hot topic here at Sun Country (pun intended…)! We decided to put two grills to the test to see which was better in terms of cooking time. Which grill cooked our whole chickens fastest? Here are the results!
Whole chickens ready for grilling
The grills we decided to use were the Weber Genesis EP310, and the large size Big Green Egg. First, we needed to get them up to temperature (at least 300 degrees). As we were cooking meat for longer than 30 minutes, it was important that we set our grills up to cook indirectly. We lit the Egg first, adding a lighter cube to our charcoal and then adding some coals on top. To cook indirectly on the Weber grill, we lit the two outside burners and set them to medium heat. It took around 10 minutes for the Egg to reach 300 degrees and for the Weber to hit 350 degrees. We were ready to cook!
Our lit BGE
We placed our chicken in the middle of the Weber between the top lit burners and closed the lid to start cooking. For the Egg, we inserted the plate setter legs up and added a drip tray. Then we added the cooking grate and placed the chicken on top. The lid was closed and the bottom damper was left open 1.5″. The top damper was fully open.
Chicken on the Weber
Plate setter upside down in BGE
After one hour, we checked the temperature of our chickens. The Weber chicken was already at 170 degrees and ready to eat. As we had added in our accessories at a cold temperature to the Egg, its chicken was still only at 130 degrees. After 20 more minutes, the Egg chicken was ready to eat.
Is it done yet?
RESULTS: Total prep/cooking time – Weber: 1 hour 10 minutes, Big Green Egg: 1 hour 30 minutes
The results are in!
Overall, the cooking times varied very little. Had we added the plate setter and grill to the Big Green Egg at the time of lighting, we may have saved some time during cooking. Both chickens tasted amazing, but if you like the smoky charcoal taste to your meat, the extra time spent on the Egg is well worth it. So, when it comes to cooking time on gas vs charcoal grills, both are very equally matched. If you have cooking questions you would like answered, please speak to one of our knowledgeable sales associates at our St. Catharines showroom.