This method is best for foods that take longer than 25 minutes to cook. When using indirect heat, your aim is to never have any part of the food over the flames or heat source and this technique can only be used with a kettle style BBQ. When your BBQ is set up for indirect cooking, it is effectively turned into an outdoor convection oven, but with the added benefit of heaps of flavour from the smoking barrel chunks. Heat and smoke swirl around the inside of your BBQ and cook the food from every angle. This also eliminates the need to flip or turn your food, meaning the lid or hood can stay closed, therefore maximising the flavour given to the food. It is very important to have all your vents open, if you have any on your BBQ. At Jake’s we think it is best to have all the vents fully open when using charcoal, however, if you have a problem with the charcoal getting too hot then adjust the lower one (s) and close them to half way. Never adjust the top vents, always have these fully open. The temperature in a gas BBQ is controlled mainly by the control knob that adjusts the flame, so the vents are less important. Please take note that every time you lift the lid or hood to look at the food, you are going to have to add an extra 15 mins cooking time each time you do so. Therefore only do this when absolutely necessary, i.e. when you need to baste, top up the charcoal, top up the water pan or put another barrel chunk in (try to do all these things in one go, if needed). If you have a temperature gauge, the ideal temperature of the BBQ is 225 to 275 degrees Fahrenheit and when cooking chicken you may need to go up to 300 to 325 degrees Fahrenheit . Don’t worry too much about these temperature settings, as it is the way the BBQ is set up that counts. The water pan to be used must be metal and have no handles that will melt or the like. It should hold 1 inch or slightly more than 1 inch of water and should be around 6 to 8 inches in diameter. It is placed directly above the heat source, so it heats up and gives off a steam to keep the food moist whilst cooking. Various things can be added to the water pan as well as or instead of water to give another flavour dimension to the food such as BBQ sauces, marinades, beer, wine, fruit juices and spices and herbs. They really do make a difference. Remember, it will be the barrel chunk (s) that will add most of the flavour.

Soak a barrel chunk in water or wine for around 1 hour before using.

A chimney starter is a good piece of kit to use to light your BBQ charcoal, otherwise light your charcoal in the usual way. Once the charcoal is lit (usually 20 minutes after lighting) push it all to back of your BBQ onto the charcoal grate and heaped into a pile. Make sure it does not go above where the cooking grill is going to be placed otherwise you may have trouble placing the cooking grill into your BBQ. Now place a ‘drip tray’ also on the charcoal grate and as far away as possible from the charcoal, this can be an aluminium foil tray. The idea of this tray is to catch any drips of fat from the food cooking above it, in turn protecting your BBQ from catching fire when in later use. Now place the cooking grill onto your BBQ and place the water pan directly over hot coals on top of the cooking grill. Now fill this water pan up with fresh boiled water or cold wine or beer and any additional herbs and spices, marinades etc if wanted (water is just fine). Take one barrel chunk after soaking and place this at the side of water pan, and also directly over the hot coals. Now place the food to be cooked directly over the drip tray, ( remember that this should be at the other side of the BBQ and the food should not be directly over any part of the hot coals). Now replace the lid or hood and open all the air vents if you can do so. Only lift the lid or hood to baste the food if needed. When and if basting the food, also check the water pan has not dried out. If it has then replenish it. This is where the chimney starter comes in handy. After about 1 hour the charcoal will start to cool, you will need to start some more charcoal, away from your BBQ. Around 10-12 pieces will last another hour or so. The chimney starter is the easiest way to do this. Once lit carefully lift the cooking grill off of your BBQ and carefully place it down on the floor away from children and pets. Now pour the hot charcoal on top of the old charcoal, replace the cooking grill and carry on cooking. A viable alternative is to use ‘Heat Beads’. These are on sale at various garden centres and supermarkets and they keep burning for longer, so it eliminates the need to top up your BBQ charcoal. If using heat beads you can cook a full chicken or the like in one go. Use them just like charcoal.

To achieve good results by ‘indirect cooking’ on a gas BBQ you must have a gas BBQ with at least 2 separate burners, that can be controlled by control knobs. Ideally you would want 3 or more separate burners. It is still possible to ‘indirect grill’ on a 2 burner gas BBQ, just keep one gas burner lit and place the food to be cooked as far away from the hot heat source as possible i.e. over the non lit burner. So lets describe how to cook ‘indirectly’ with a gas BBQ with 3 burners or more.

Take out the cooking grill (where the food usually sits) and place an aluminium foil tray underneath and in the middle of where the cooking grill will go, this may be on top of your lava rocks or gas burners. This tray will catch drips from the food that will be placed on the cooking grill above it and therefore stop ‘flare ups’ in the future. Light all the gas burners on the BBQ and turn up the heat to full, make sure the lid/hood is closed. This will pre heat the BBQ. Turn the middle burner or burners off once pre heated and just have the outer ones on high. The aluminium foil drip tray should no longer have any lit burners on, underneath of it. Replace the cooking grill and place the water pan as described previously directly above one of the hot burners, onto the cooking grill. Now fill this water pan up with fresh boiled water, cold wine or beer and any additional herbs and spices, marinades etc if wanted (water is just fine). Take one barrel chunk after soaking and place this at the side of water pan, and also directly over the hot burner. Now place the food to be cooked directly over the aluminium foil drip tray, (this should be in the middle of the BBQ and the food should not be directly over any part of the hot burners). Now replace the lid or hood and open all the air vents if you can do so. If you have a temperature gauge, adjust the outer burners until 225 to 275 degrees Fahrenheit is reached for most foods, or 300 to 325 degrees Fahrenheit is reached for cooking chicken. The burner with the barrel chunk and water pan above it, is the most critical. This burner must have enough temperature to make the barrel chunk smoke but not catch fire, so play around with the settings for this burner until a happy medium is reached, then adjust the other burner accordingly. Only lift the lid or hood to baste the food if needed. When, and if basting the food, also check the water pan has not dried out. If it has then replenish it.

All this seems a little complex, but in practice it is all spontaneous and will become very simple when done a couple of times. It is just a new way to cook and like all other cooking techniques, takes a little concentration and consideration at first. See our recipes!