What is indirect cooking?
In direct cooking, the food is placed directly above the embers. This cooking allows you to sear and cook them quickly. Conversely, indirect cooking consists not of grilling but of roasting food as in an oven. This type of cooking is done with the barbecue lid closed and without direct contact between the food and the heat source. This indirect cooking method distributes heat evenly throughout the enclosure so that food does not burn, cooks evenly, does not dry out and retains all its juices. The heat spreads like in a convection oven. With certain foods, it should be preferred if you want a cooking that is tasty and nutritionally satisfactory.
What to cook with indirect cooking?
It is better to favor indirect cooking for foods that require a fairly long cooking time, that is to say more than 30 minutes. It is particularly suitable for thick pieces of meat (more than 5 cm thick), whole or delicate products such as certain whole fish, fillets or skewers. It allows uniform cooking in all the flesh. It is ideal for cooking poultry – our tips for successfully cooking whole chicken on the BBQ – duck breast, vegetables or pieces that you want to enjoy melting like leg of lamb, turkey thigh, beef or pork brisket that require slow and non-aggressive cooking.
Find the recipe for Jacky's beef short ribs, a barbecue enthusiast and above all, a Kokko enthusiast!
What about direct cooking?
Direct cooking is ideal for foods that don't require long cooking times, meaning less than 30 minutes. It's suitable for cooking all types of sausages, chipolatas, merguez, andouillettes, skewers, escalopes, chops, cutlets, and ground steaks. Even with short cooking times, direct cooking is primarily suitable for foods that are sufficiently 'resistant', such as the mentioned meat cuts or certain vegetables like grilled peppers. For seafood, shellfish (shrimp, lobster, prawns, etc.) and certain fish like sea bream, sardines, or sea bass are well-suited for direct cooking because they only spend a few minutes on the grill. Check out our tips for perfectly grilling fish and cooking seafood on the barbecue.
Keys to successful indirect cooking with the Kokko
In a standard charcoal barbecue, indirect cooking can be achieved by moving the embers to one side and cooking the food on the other. However, the Kamado, with its lid, is the perfect barbecue for indirect cooking.
With a Kokko, it's very simple. Just place a heat deflector in the barbecue. There are two types: lava stone and ceramic stone, which act as a barrier against flames and embers, absorbing heat before distributing it evenly over the food being cooked. The latter is also an essential accessory for making pizzas in the Kokko.
Moreover, you can also perform different types of cooking simultaneously in your Kokko thanks to the stainless steel half-grid and the cast iron half-grid to be placed on one side of the cooking chamber, and the half plate for indirect cooking to be placed on the other side. This half plate allows for indirect cooking of delicate foods such as vegetables, fish, or seafood.
Furthermore, thanks to this chicken cooking stand, you can also perform indirect cooking in the Kokko and obtain a tender poultry that will retain all its juices in the dish.
Our recipe ideas for indirect cooking with the Kokko:
Discover another way of cooking on the barbecue: smoking. We'll tell you how to smoke your food in the Kokko.
