Originally posted: 11/20/1999
Last updated: 03/10/2008

Preparation

In preparation for the event, I drafted a list of the items we needed:

I pulled all these items together several days before the event, except for the chickens which I butterflied the night before. Three of the birds were sprinkled with a poultry rub just before cooking, while the other 3 were marinated for a few hours in Italian dressing and then sprinkled with lemon pepper just before cooking.

Since we would be at a friend's house, we had access to comfortable patio furniture and a kitchen for meat prep, hand washing, and cleanup. If your mobile cooking location has no such facilities, you'll need to consider bringing along some additional items:

Our host was expecting 15-20 guests, so we planned on cooking 5 chickens—feeding four guests per chicken. However, since the chicken came in 2-packs at the wholesale warehouse store, we ended up cooking 6 birds.

We did nothing fancy in terms of prepping the cookers for the road trip. All the parts of my WSM fit in the trunk of my car, with the exception of the middle cooking section, which I placed inside a large trash bag and put in the backseat on top of an old blanket to protect the seat. Cam's WSM fit easily in his hatchback, simply broken down into its three sections.

We arrived early the next day at our friend's house and setup our equipment in the backyard.

At 9:00am started a chimney full of Kingsford charcoal briquettes.

When the coals were hot, we placed half in each Bullet. We then added 1-1/2 chimneys of unlit briquettes on top of the lit coals in each cooker. By 10:40am the coals were hot, the cooker temperature had stabilized, and we began smoking. We cooked the 3 poultry-rubbed birds in one Weber Bullet and the 3 marinated chickens in the other. Four chunks of unsoaked cherry were used in each cooker as smoke wood.

The coastal weather was very pleasant that day, in the mid-60's with clear, calm skies, so the cookers chugged along nicely in the 240-250°F target range. Here's what my cooking log shows for my Weber Bullet:

Note that the vent percentages represent the way I set the vents at the time indicated.

The chickens came off the cookers at 2:50pm. They rested for about 10 minutes, then I separated them into thigh/drumstick and breast/wing portions. We served the chicken right out of the large aluminum foil pans that were used to transport the cooked birds into the house.

In addition to the chicken, our host provided a wonderful menu of Aidell's grilled sausage, homemade baked beans, tossed green salad, garlic bread, and other goodies. For dessert, we enjoyed freshly baked pumpkin pie, in keeping with Half Moon Bay's status as Pumpkin Capital of the World...or at least California. OK, maybe just San Mateo County.

We fed fifteen guests easily, leaving some leftovers with our host and sending the rest home with guests. We spent a total of $55.00 buying all the food and supplies needed for this event. And in case you're wondering, the poultry-rubbed chicken went faster than the marinated chicken, but both were thoroughly enjoyed.

Cam and I had great fun cooking at our friend's party. It required a fair amount of time and preparation on our part, but was rewarded by the pride and satisfaction we felt after successfully pulling off the event. We enjoyed it so much that we did it again on Memorial Day 2000 for this same friend's retirement party. In fact, Cam went on to become quite proficient at "going mobile", frequently taking his WSM to various locations to cook chicken and ribs for friends.

So don't be afraid—impress your friends and family with your BBQ expertise. Go mobile with your Weber Bullet!

I can't resist showing you these pictures I took in October 2000 at the American Royal Barbecue competition in Kansas City, Missouri. They show what I consider to be the ultimate in "going mobile" with the Weber Bullet.

Picture 1 shows Jim Minion of the Cardogs Barbecue Team loading three WSMs on the back of his monster RV. Picture 2 shows the cookers wrapped in a moving blanket and strapped-down for the long road trip home to Washington State. The cookers are sitting on a metal platform that is inserted into a trailer hitch.

In 2000, the Cardogs used four Weber Smokey Mountain Cookers in competition. The fourth one was broken down into pieces and stowed in a compartment beneath the RV.

A great resource for cooking for groups is the University of Georgia's Outdoor Barbecuing for Small and Large Groups. This document covers menu planning, food purchasing, pricing, food safety, preparation, serving, cleanup, and more. Thanks to Bruce Bissonnette for sharing this resource on The Virtual Weber Bulletin Board.

If you're going mobile for the purposes of competition barbecue, you'll need a lot more than what's listed here. One of the best competition checklists I know of is available for download at the Smokin' Guns BBQ Web site.