The kid I potty trained to get my Big Green Egg just cooked us dinner on it.
When you’re the dad of teenagers, a lot of your time goes into finding something they’ll actually want to do. Something that isn’t a screen and isn’t a chore. It’s a short list.
What got me thinking about this was a book I’d been reading, Dopamine Kids by Michaeleen Doucleff. Her argument is that dopamine isn’t the pleasure chemical we all got told about. It’s the wanting chemical, and screens and ultra-processed food are built around that.
Because the book was based on the author having younger kids, there were not a lot of takeaways for me. What did stick was the importance of things like teaching teens to cook when you’re trying to break them from screen time and unhealthy eating.
So I asked my 16 year old if he wanted to be Chef for dinner and learn how to use the Big Green Egg. He said yes. I played it cool, but I was pretty excited on the inside.
For those that don’t know the story, one could say the Egg is on our deck because of him. Back in 2012, I spent a long weekend potty training that same kid while my wife went out of town. I volunteered. I wanted to take on the challenge. Three days on my own, no tag team partner.
Before that weekend of no diapers even started, my wife had declared that by taking on this messy challenge, she would buy me whatever I wanted. Sitting in the back of my mind was this crazy, expensive smoker I saw on the Food Network. I asked. She said yes. The training was a success, and we have been enjoying smoked meats ever since.
Back to the present and teen cookery.
I told my son that dinner was boneless chicken thighs and I’d already cleaned them up, so that part was done. Thighs are forgiving, making them a good first cook. Everything after that was his.
He started with the research (I know, more phone) and went and found a recipe himself. He landed on lemon pepper for the rub. Entirely his call. He measured and mixed it up himself, then got his hands right into the chicken, squishing the rub in. And of course, washed them before moving on.
Then the Egg. He’d never even touched it before, let alone fire it up.
If you’ve never done it, a Big Green Egg isn’t a barbecue you turn on. There’s no knob. You’re building an actual fire inside a ceramic pot and then trying to get it to sit at one temperature for an hour, and that learning curve is what scares people off. I used to go through fire starters like a maniac before I figured it out.
Plus, just opening it the first time, it’s heavier than you expect it to be.
So we went through it properly. Ash out the bottom, because an Egg full of ash can’t breathe. I reminded him of how important air is to a strong fire. Then he made a tiny pile of backyard sticks and used a few cooking oil-soaked napkins and lit it. On top of that, he placed a chimney starter full of lump charcoal. Bottom vent wide open. Then we waited for it to catch and start heating up the charcoal.
There are many ways to light the fire, and for me it’s one of the more fun parts. I could tell my son agreed.
Then comes the boring part. Lid down, and you start dialing it in with the vents. The bottom vent does most of the heavy lifting, and the top one is for fine-tuning, and he worked both of them the way I told him to. Then you wait. You let the Egg come up and stabilize, and it always takes longer than anyone thinks it should. There’s nothing to do during that part except not touch it.
Then I asked Chef if he wanted direct or indirect grilling. Basically, do you want the chicken directly facing the fire? He chose indirect as per the recipe he was following.
On went the ConvEGGtor, then the grate, and once the temperature stabilized, the chicken went on.
Lid down, time to sit back and let the Egg do its thing.
After several minutes, it was time to check. I taught my son about burping the Egg. No doubt, always a fun thing to say. Basically, if the Egg is really hot, you don’t just open it fast as you may get a backdraft and a big waft of heat into your face. So you just lift the lid slightly, let the heat out, then open it up fully.
I talked him through all of it. But I made a point of letting him do everything. He was Chef for the night, and I let him own the part. If you are going to really learn how to do something, you need to do it. Makes sense to me. I also learn best by doing, not watching.
After a few flips of the meat, it was time to pull the thighs off the grill. They looked done, and even though we didn’t temp them this time with a digital thermometer, I made the call for him. He let it rest so the juices redistributed, and then it was dinner time.
By the way, I was the Sous Chef for this meal, and that included me making some roasted potatoes and a spinach salad.
The chicken was very good. Grilled correctly, all the way through, and it even got high marks from the younger teen who can be the critic you want to impress. But the best part was that he had a lot of fun doing it. It was pretty cool for me too.
My son is already talking about the next one. A different flavour, and he wants to skip the indirect setup so he can get more char on the chicken. He will be doing a beer can chicken in no time.
So the Big Green Egg has come full circle.
The kid I potty trained to get my Big Green Egg just cooked us dinner on it.
Thirteen years ago I wrote about the Egg’s first anniversary, and I finished that post with this line: “Soon, I will get to teach my boys how to grill and make supper.” He was three. Now he is a young adult and learning the ways of grilling.
He has said openly before that he knows the Egg is a big deal to me. So I am sure he got a real kick out of getting to use the grill. It’s like I let him take the family car out for the first time. I guess that particular adventure is still yet to come. I hope it goes as smoothly.
Oh, before I sign off, here is a photo of the Big Green Egg after it was delivered many years ago.
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