Spit-Roasted Meats on the Outdoor Barbecue

[David Ross]

I've been spit-roasting chickens on my outdoor barbecue for years. Nothing seems to beat the flavor of a chicken basting itself with natural juices as it rotates over the coals of a wood fire. But I've never ventured beyond the chicken when it came to spit-roasting. I think it was both out of fear and ignorance.

This summer I set out on a search for new ways to cook ribs on my outdoor barbecue and I recently came upon a recipe in Steven Raichlen's "Planet Barbecue" that caught my interest-"Rotisserie Baby Back Ribs with Garlic and Wine." The timing was perfect-a recipe for ribs on a spit and it would give me the chance to test a new toy. I recently replaced my 10 year-old hand-crafted rotisserie spit contraption with an appropriate spit for my Weber grill so I was anxious to put something other than chicken to the test.

While I was interested in Raichlen's technique for spit-roasting ribs in the technique of the Brazilians, I didn't stick to the actual recipe. I like my ribs "dry" with a simple rub of spices, (no sauce), so I didn't marinate the ribs in the garlic and wine called for in the recipe. I simply rubbed a slab of ribs with Weber's Cajun Spice mix that you can buy in the Supermarket. It's got the right mix of spice, heat and salt that fits my tastes, and it's convenient. I've mixed my own spice rubs and tasted a number of store-bought mixes and this one is my current favorite.

To prepare the ribs, I rubbed the slab with the spice mixture and wrapped them with plastic and let them sit in the refrigerator for about 6 hours. Then I threaded the slab onto the spit about every three ribs. I've found one key element in spit-roasting is to put the meat on the spit before you build the fire. That way you get the meat centered and balanced on the spit before you get a blazing hot fire going. And make sure the drip pan is centered under the meat and the rotisserie is rotating properly before you light the fire.

I used a combination of charcoal and hickory chunks for the fire. I also put on some wet applewood chips during roasting for extra smoke flavor. During the roasting process, I sprayed the ribs with some applejuice about every 20 minutes. The cooking time took about an hour and 15 minutes.

Cooking ribs on my rotisserie didn't produce a smoke ring or heavy smoke flavor like "low and slow" barbecue pork ribs. But that wasn't really what I was looking for. Spit-roasting pork ribs on the barbecue resulted in meat that was so tender you would have thought it had been roasted in a low oven for eight hours. It had a hint of campfire smoke and was bursting with pork juices. Delicious.

Do you spit-roast meats on your backyard barbecue?

[budrichard]

I have a Weber with Rotisserie that I spit roast chickens and pork shoulders over hardwood charcoal and hickory wood chunks. The grill has a vertical collar that sits on the grill holding the spit and then the cover can be put back on making for an enclosed space. The only problem is that it cannot handle a 30# pig as the spit is just too small. For ribs we use a rib rack that holds the rib sections almost vertically and works quite well.

What make of grill is pictured?-Dick

[David Ross]

It's a basic Weber. The spit is a generic brand but it fits the Weber and works perfectly.

[budrichard]

It appears that your Rotisserie mounts where the Weber handles go.

The Weber Rotisserie has 8" or so high collar that mounts on the bottom half of the Weber and that collar supports the Rotisserie allowing one to cook with the cover on or off. With the cover on, its quicker and will eliminate flare ups.

If Weber made a Rotisserie for their 'Ranch Kettle', I would have one in a flash.-Dick

[Chris Amirault]

I admit that I'm confused. Can anyone explain how the ribs are that tender after so little cooking? It seems inadequate to break down collagen, in particular....

[David Ross]

I admit that I'm confused. Can anyone explain how the ribs are that tender after so little cooking? It seems inadequate to break down collagen, in particular....

I'm not sure about the technical details, but the ribs were incredibly juicy and I think the photo shows that. I think it's due to the self-basting that takes place with spit-roasting, but again, I'm not the technical expert. I'm going to try a beef rib roast this weekend, but of course, that has a different fat/meat ratio than the pork ribs.

[weinoo]

I think you'd have to roast spare-ribs for longer than this for them to be super tender. But these are baby backs, and that probably makes for a shorter cooking time, since they're pretty darn tender to start with.

[Chris Hennes]

I did some baby backs in the oven last week: 75 minutes in a 300°F oven, texture was excellent. I don't know if "tender" is the word I'd use, though. I prefer ribs with a little bite to them, none of this "falling off the bone" mush. So it's not implausible that rotisserizing them for that length of time would work well.

[HungryC]

The ribs look wonderfully delicious, but I must admit that the "after" photo makes my scoliotic spine hurt something awful. RE: cooking time + baby backs, the cooking time varies and can be wonderfully short. I cook to texture & temp, rather than arbitrary time--a most important bbq axiom.

[David Ross]

Last night I spit-roasted a chicken. A classic method of spit-roasting you might say, but I did something with the recipe that I hadn't done in the past--I stuffed the chicken.

I faced a number of questions before I started. I wasn't sure if stuffing a chicken and then spit-roasting it would be a good idea. Would the stuffing fall out of the bird as it rotated over the fire for an hour and a half? Would stuffing the chicken increase the cooking time? Should I use a traditional stuffing recipe like I use for stuffing the Thanksgiving turkey or go with something out of my comfort zone in terms of creativity?

I found the inspiration for the stuffing recipe in Chef Laurent Tourondel's new cookbook, "Fresh from the Market." (John Wiley & Sons, 2010). Chef Tourondel includes a recipe for Tomato and Chorizo Eggs Cocotte--basically eggs in a ramekin with a base of tomato and chorizo and then baked in the oven in a ramekin.

I adapted the tomato and chorizo base from the egg recipe by adding roasted garlic, fresh bread crumbs, basil, thyme and lemon juice. The key to the recipe is using Spanish Chorizo which is a dried sausage. Do not substitute the poor, fresh substitutes called "Chorizo" that are mass-produced and found in supermarkets. They don't come near to having the authentic, smoky flavor of Spanish Chorizo.

The chicken was trussed tightly in order for the stuffing to hold inside the chicken during spit-roasting. Cooking time was about an hour and 45 minutes over a fairly low flame using charcoal-

To accompany the chicken, I made a very easy salad of green beans, yellow bell pepper and red onions. I blanched the beans quickly and then chilled them in ice water. The dressing was olive oil, lemon juice and this beautiful pear, white balsamic vinegar that I found, a few fresh thyme leaves and salt and pepper.

Spit-Roasted Chicken served with Tomato and Spanish Chorizo Stuffing, Green Bean and Yellow Pepper Salad-

Spit-Roasted Chicken is always juicy-

[MSRadell]

Another interesting thing to cook on a spit is prime rib! I have done them many times and they always come out excellent. Just use cracked peppercorns and kosher salt on the outside. Nice and crusty on the outside and succulent on the inside.

[Raoul Duke]

Does the spit shaft impart any additional heat to the interior of the rib roast? I like'em rare throughout and wondered if this is possible with it impaled.

[OliverB]

all looks great! I don't have a spit yet, almost bought the weber one, but I think I'll get something from spitjack.com instead, as it works with a (yet to be obtained) fire pit and it should be possible to use it on my weber too somehow. The bonus with the weber unit is that you can close the lid though, as mentioned above.

[budrichard]

Does the spit shaft impart any additional heat to the interior of the rib roast? I like'em rare throughout and wondered if this is possible with it impaled.

No it does not, as the energy is not imparted to the rib roast but simply turns into energy of rotation which dissipates as friction where the spit rotates on it bearing surfaces.-Dick

[jmolinari]

Does the spit shaft impart any additional heat to the interior of the rib roast? I like'em rare throughout and wondered if this is possible with it impaled.

No it does not, as the energy is not imparted to the rib roast but simply turns into energy of rotation which dissipates as friction where the spit rotates on it bearing surfaces.-Dick

I think he means bc the spit gets hot sitting in the grill and cooks the meat around it where it's been impaled.

[MSRadell]

Does the spit shaft impart any additional heat to the interior of the rib roast? I like'em rare throughout and wondered if this is possible with it impaled.

No it doesn't. You can have it perfectly rare in the middle and crispy on the outside.

[Joel Hicks]

Prime rib eh? i would have thought that it would dry out cooking rotisserie style.

Did you need to lard it at all?

Did you place the shaft through the centre of the rib eye, or close to the bone??

Cheers

Joel