Traveling with food questions....

begolf25 · Joined: 01 Feb 2006 Posts: 9 Location: Hanover, PA

My friends have requested I make my beer can chicken for the super bowl. I prepare this on my charcoal grill and cannot do this at my friends house that day. I will need to cook these either sunday morning or saturday. Any suggestions on when i should cook the bird? My buddies house is about an hour away and i am not sure how long after I get there we will be eating.

Should I cook it Sunday morning then FTC it? If so, will it be ok like that for more then 2 hours?

Should I cook it Sunday morning and take it another way?

Or should I cook it Saturday, take it over cold and reheat it? If so, best way to reheat without drying it out?

Never had to have my food travel before so anything will be helpful. Thanks in advance for the help.

bigabyte · Posted: Feb 04 2006 Post subject:

I did FTC for two hours on chicken two weeks ago. It was still steaming hot when I unwrapped it, and good and juicy too. That's the longest that I personally have ever done this though. I don't do a lot of FTC since I'm not on the circuit, so I'd also like to hear what otheres have to say.
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Alien BBQ · Posted: Feb 04 2006 Post subject:

Normally, once meat drops below 145 degrees you have 4 hours till it hits the trash can. This is because it normally takes 4 hours for a bacteria count to become large enough to harm a normal person. This does not include the elderly, young children, those with an immune deficiency and people with a thyroid or liver problem. These folks will get sicker faster with a lot fewer bacteria. I would personally suggest taking it off the smoker, wrapping it in foil and throwing it in a cooler with a towel on top of the food immediately. Call your friend when you are 30 minutes out and tell him top to preheat his oven to 145 and throw it in the oven in the foil when you get there. 140 is a good holding temp and the meat won�t really cook a lot at that temp. In all likelihood the meat will still be above 140 when you get there. With chicken I might shoot for 2 hours instead of 4.
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jminion · Posted: Feb 04 2006 Post subject:

Your choices are to cool quickly and reheat once your at the party or have the chicken at the last min and wrap in H/D foil and place in dry cooler. If you want to be sure they stay hot you can preheat cooler with hot water or by heating firebrick or a pizza stone. you can leave the brick or stone in the cooler to keep the internals up.

Jim