We independently evaluate all of our recommendations. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. What to Buy Grilling & BBQ How to Set Up and Use a Rotisserie Grill Like a Pro Heat control and spinning meat make all the difference. By Greg Baker Greg Baker Greg Baker is a chef, restaurant consultant, and writer with almost 40 years of experience in the industry. As an expert in outdoor cooking, Greg has written more than 30 articles on grilling and barbecuing for Food & Wine across categories including kamado grills, pizza ovens, and meat thermometers. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Published on February 26, 2024 In This Article View All In This Article Our Top Picks Reviews Getting Started Tips for Rotisserie Cooking FAQ Our Expertise Photo: Amazon Rotisserie cooking is a primal experience, utilizing one of the oldest cooking methods we know. A piece of meat (or fish or vegetable) gets suspended over a fire, slowly turning as the outside takes on a fire-roasted crustiness, and the food slowly bastes itself with the juices released from cooking. Getting a piece of food that’s been off the spit for just a few minutes, it’s still cooking and transforming. It’s a unique thing, more frequently experienced at home than in restaurants, says chef Michael Toscano. Although he fondly remembers a dinner of lamb fresh from the spit in a small restaurant in Piedmont, Italy, the timing practicalities make large-scale rotisserie service difficult to orchestrate. So, how can you make rotisserie cooking a reality at home? Toscano, who plans to open a rotisserie-based restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina, shares his knowledge. What Can You Cook Rotisserie Style? A lot. Think chicken, lamb neck, stuffed pork belly, and even vegetables, simply threading them onto the spit and letting them go, according to Toscano. But marinating vegetables like cabbage or cauliflower in ways that allow the flavor to permeate the insides can see the best results from having the exterior nicely charred while the interior becomes tender, providing a gradient of texture to compliment the flavor. If you feel like showing off, mount a block of cheese on the spit and place a pan of meat or vegetables underneath, allowing the cheese to melt over the food below, acting like a big raclette. Getting Started Start with a classic rotisserie chicken, the type that almost everyone is familiar with, according to Toscano. Once you’re comfortable with that, understanding how to crisp the skin and render the subcutaneous fat for the juiciest meat, you can apply that knowledge to other pieces of meat or vegetables. Tips for Rotisserie Cooking The process of rotisserie cooking should start several hours or even in the days before you put your meat on a spit or in a basket, according to Toscano. What you put into the fire affects what you get out of it. Brining, curing, or marinating your food, or even allowing something as simple as plain salt to get to work on it properly, requires time to work. After handling the seasoning and flavoring, a back burner or a nicely banked small fire is the next step. Finally, the finishing move is to find the right temperature to give you a well-crisped exterior, well-rendered fat, and evenly-cooked food while the food self-bastes. A wireless meat thermometer (wires tangle as the spit or basket rotates) can help you monitor the cooking to determine how quickly your food is cooking so you can compare it to the exterior and adjust the heat if the outside is crisping and the center still ice cold, or vice versa. And a good grill light can help you get great results after the sun goes down. Again, the goal is a perfectly browned exterior, nicely rendered fat, and the interior cooked to the desired temperature. Our Top Picks SALE Weber Charcoal Kettle Rotisserie at Amazon $252 $184 Jump to Review SALE Kamado Joe JoeTisserie Classic at Amazon $300 $180 Jump to Review Dyna-Glo Universal Rotisserie Kit at Amazon $67 Jump to Review Weber Charcoal Kettle Rotisserie PHOTO: Amazon $252 $184 at Amazon $190 at Walmart $190 at Home Depot Weber’s rotisserie consists of an enamel-coated metal ring that elevates the spit above the cooking grates and an electric motor that rotates the spit. This model works for many 22-inch kettle charcoal grills, as well. Kamado Joe JoeTisserie Classic PHOTO: Amazon $300 $180 at Amazon $350 at Wayfair $300 at Walmart The Joetisserie has a similarly elevated ring base that’s wedge-shaped to ensure a tighter lid seal for kamado grill designs. The brand also sells a rotisserie basket ($200 at Kamado Joe) that operates on the same base. Dyna-Glo Universal Rotisserie Kit PHOTO: Amazon $67 at Amazon $101 at Walmart $72 at Home Depot For a universal option, we like this Dyna-Glo kit, which fits gas grills up to 32 inches wide. It comes with adjustable brackets, a spit rod, an extension rod for wider grills, and an electric motor that can rotate up to 26 pounds of meat. Frequently Asked Questions How does rotisserie cooking work? Put succinctly, rotisserie cooking involves “food on a spit, constantly rotating with a fire on one side,” says Toscano. That spit is often oriented in the classic horizontal configuration, reaching across the fire. It can also be vertical, with the heat source likewise configured, as one might find for gyros or al pastor. The food slowly but constantly rotates, passing each side toward the heat source, not allowing any surface of the food to face the heat longer than any other. The result is a slow roast with direct heat. Can you add a rotisserie attachment to any grill? “You can build a fire in a garbage can and put a spit over it; it depends on how precise you want to be,” says Toscano, jokingly. In other words, yes, you can, but how interactive in the process do you want to be, and how much control do you want over your cooking? There are several choices on the market: grills designed with rotisserie attachments in mind, after-market rotisseries to fit your existing grill, or one-size-fits-all models that you can adjust and modify to fit your needs. The closer the match to your grill, the less you’ll be tinkering with the cooking process if that’s what you want. Do you need a rear burner for a rotisserie? Using a pellet grill or charcoal grill, you can bank the fire to one side, and there’s no need for a rear burner. Be sure to keep the fire compact and easy to control, so the heat can focus on the side of the food exposed to it as it rotates.For gas grills, opt for a rear burner, according to Toscano. With a gas grill, you suspend the food across the grill grates. The burners run perpendicular to the grates, and you’d need to light every burner directly under the food. That many lit burners may provide too much heat and inconsistent cooking. As heat reflectors for gas grills are few and far between, if you are serious about cooking with a rotisserie, seriously consider a rear burner. How long does it take to cook a chicken on a rotisserie grill? It depends on the machine or grill it's on; a grill will take a solid 45 minutes,” says Toscano. His method yields a classic rotisserie chicken. You can play with the temperature and cooking time, going lower and slower if you’d like, to produce a more fall-off-the-bone chicken, but cooking it too slowly may dry out the chicken, according to Toscano. Our Expertise Greg Baker is an award-winning chef, restaurateur, and food writer with four decades of experience in the food industry. His written work appears in Food & Wine, Tasting Table, Food Republic, and other publications. For this piece, he consulted Michael Toscano, chef and owner of da Toscano in New York City, and Le Farfalle and the soon-to-open da Toscano Porchetta Shop in Charleston, South Carolina. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit