My New Favorite Meat Searing Method: The Charcoal Chimney

I’m all about using things for which they are not originally intended. I love multitasking items! That’s just one of the reasons I love using my charcoal chimney to sear meat.

 

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New sear technique tonight!

A post shared by Nick Jakusz 🎙🎧 (@nickwithamic) on Aug 3, 2020 at 5:27pm PDT

I originally saw this method in a Facebook Group called Sous Vide Enthusiasts.

NOT FAMILIAR WITH SOUS VIDE? WELL, IF YOU LOVE PERFECTLY COOKED PROTEINS EVERY SINGLE TIME, TAKE A LOOK.

Anyway, if you are cooking and you need to sear something with extremely high heat and for a very short amount of time, try the chimney method! Instead of the charcoal heating up an entire grill, it is focused straight up, which creates a very hot plume of air and is much more efficient.  It also saves charcoal since you don’t have to fill up the entire grill bowl. You can even just use the shallow end of the chimney if you want to save even more charcoal.

Obviously, don’t use this method to cook your food to temperature. It will be burnt on the outside before the inside has a chance to warm up. However, if you plan on finishing the coolking process elsewhere, or are dealing with a fully cooked piece of protein (like in sous vide), then this is a great method!