I made a wondrous thrift store find last weekend—a barely used Cobb grill/cooker just sitting there on the floor of the sporting goods section of the Shoreline Goodwill outlet. For the life of me I don’t know why I didn’t snatch it up immediately; it was two days later that it dawned on me that I should have. I suppose it was meant to be that I ended up with this barely-used cooking kit for a fraction of the retail price. Nevertheless, my heart really did beat a little faster when I returned to the store to find it still miraculously there. Conveniently, the nearest grocery was directly across the street, so after paying for my treasure and darting in to grab a test chicken, I had my afternoon mapped out for me.
My new grill is powered by charcoal and extremely fuel-efficient. A combination of charcoal briquettes and lump hardwood charcoal in the small charcoal basket under the cooking surface provided enough fuel for a three-hour fire, and I used my electric fire starter to light the fuel, since I had access to an outlet. I worried about smoke from the grill disturbing my neighbors in the nearby apartments, but the Cobb is nicely self-contained, and smoke is minimal and mostly noticeable at the beginning when first lighting the charcoal.
When they say the Cobb is good for “low and slow” cooking, they mean you’ll like it best when you have time to wait for extra-fine results. It took almost four hours for my four-pound chicken to be fully cooked, so adjust charcoal accordingly for a hotter fire and quicker cook times. Mine surely suffered from too many lifted lids to check progress. All I’ve read about the Cobb tells me it’s not the ideal cooking source for quick meals—better to stick with your propane grill, butane stove or electric skillet for fast eating—but if you have the luxury of a long, slow cook, the results are noticeably succulent, moist, and smoky delicious, with that crisp, golden brown outer skin of all perfect roast chickens.
Preparation was simple: Coarse salt sprinkled generously over the entire bird, two cut lemon halves in the cavity, and a brushing of Hoisin sauce in the final 30 minutes of cooking.