We have owned our grill for over 15 years and in that time we have used the rotisserie only once, maybe twice, at the most. We recently bought a BBQ rotisserie basket and all that’s changed! In the first two weeks since we bought the rotisserie basket, we’ve already used it four times. We love it.
Now that summer is here, my wife and I love using the barbecue grill every chance we get. We enjoy grilling different meats, vegetables, and even pizzas. When grilling veggies we’ve tried several different types of baskets and perforated wok-style pans.
Most of them worked okay, but you needed to flip and stir the veggies around every five minutes or so to keep them from burning and so they cook evenly.
The grill rotisserie basket has put an end to continually monitoring what you’re grilling. If it’s something that will fit in the basket and not fall apart, while the rotisserie does its thing, you’re going to love it. So far it’s worked great with chicken wings, fries, smoked sausage, and vegetables.
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We bought our “grill rotisserie basket” from Amazon. This link will take you to the exact one we have. You can use it to check the features and pricing. We love it and highly recommend it.
Benefits Of Using A Grilling Rotisserie Basket
There are a couple of main benefits to cooking with the rotisserie basket. First, there’s no continuous monitoring of the food. There’s no need for flipping or turning involved.
The second benefit is the food cooks evenly. There’s very little worrying about burning, as long as a reasonable grill temperature is maintained.
This is why for the best results, you’ll want to know the temperature of the inside of the grill. Just adjust the grill burners to achieve the desired cooking temperature inside the grill. Then cook the food for the normal cooking time.
Most grills come with thermometers installed in the covers. If yours doesn’t, it’s very easy to install one yourself. Here’s a link to a grill thermometer at Amazon and a video of a guy installing the thermometer. It should only take you 5 or 10 minutes and will make your grilling much easier to control.
As an example, in the video below we are cooking some frozen french fries and chicken wings. The oven cooking instruction for both was very close. Bake at 425° for 35 to 40 minutes. Each of them calls for turning them halfway through for even cooking.
By maintaining the 425° temperature in the grill the cooking time for our wings and fries was good. The best part was it was roughly 40 minutes of hands-free, no-fuss cooking. Check it out and see how nicely the rotisserie basket works.
The Downside Of Using A BBQ Rotisserie Basket
The fact is you are somewhat limited on what the rotisserie basket can be used for. Many foods would have the potential to break apart as they tumble in the basket and finish cooking.
There are flat spit rotisserie baskets, which we haven’t tried “yet”, that can be used with many foods. They clamp and hold the food in place, so they do not tumble inside the basket. They work well for foods like fish or chicken and still offer hands-free benefits.
The BBQ grill rotisserie baskets are good for cooking food evenly. However, there are some foods, such as steaks, that most folks prefer having both sides seared, while the inside is not completely cooked. The rotisserie would not be the best fit for those foods.
Another thing to be aware of when buying a rotisserie basket is smaller pieces can fall out of the basket openings. Obviously, it all depending on the size of the openings in your basket.
Because of the tumbling action, even long, thin items can make their way out occasionally. Grilling thin green beans could be a challenge. The basket we have and linked to above has 1/4″ openings. So far we’ve only had very small pieces of onion and a few thin asparagus tips fall out. It works for us!
Conclusion
Even though the BBQ grill rotisserie basket has a couple of limitations, we’ve found it to be a great addition to our summer grilling. It does a wonderful job of grilling vegetables, which is one of our favorites, and it works well on chicken wings too.
And with a little imagination, I’m sure we can find some other uses. So we recommend giving the rotisserie basket a try and have a great summer of grilling.
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That is a great idea! I might just have to try it. Our basket is about 7″ wide, so the ribs may move around some and possibly break apart. Other than that, I think it would work well.
Great article! Do you think ribs could be done this way!