Kamado recipes

Kamado recipes from cooks I’ve done in my back garden, the good, the bad and the ugly. Some are my own, made up or adapted, and some are Big Green Egg recipes I found online and gave a go. I only write up BBQ recipes I’ve actually cooked myself, so I can give you the highlights and what actually tastes brilliant.

28 recipes, newest first.

Latest recipes

A chicken and bacon pie in a white enamel dish, the puff pastry lid risen and golden, with filling bubbling out at one edge
KamadoChickenTested by Ben

Chicken and bacon pie on the BBQ

I’d never done a pie on a barbecue before, and it was much easier than I thought it would be.

Two glazed gammon joints on a wooden board, the fat scored and coated in an orange glaze
KamadoPorkTested by Ben

Christmas gammon on the BBQ

I’d definitely do my Christmas gammon on the barbecue.

A Basque cheesecake on a white plate topped with twelve grilled fig halves, cut side up
Dessert

Basque cheesecake on a kamado

I made this burnt Basque cheesecake on my Big Green Egg, adapted from Due South’s recipe on the Big Green Egg website.

A thick bone-in pork chop on a wooden board, seared with grill marks, part carved and pink inside
Pork

BBQ pork chop on a kamado

I cooked a 518g bone-in Iberico pork chop from Graham Turner, about 4cm thick, on my Big Green Egg.
Candied bacon piled on a white plate after coming off the kamado
Pork

Candied bacon on a kamado

I did this candied bacon on the grate around a pot of bacon jam, on my Big Green Egg set up indirect at about 180°C (355°F) with the lid down.

Bacon jam in a cast iron pot on the kamado grate, cooked down and about to come off
Pork

Bacon jam on a kamado

I made this in a cast iron pot on my Big Green Egg, set up indirect at about 180°C (355°F) with the lid down, so it’s basically like cooking it in the oven.

The tomahawk carved off the bone and sliced across the grain
Beef

Tomahawk steak on the Big Green Egg Large

A 1.2kg tomahawk from Waitrose. Forty minutes indirect, ninety seconds a side over open coals, pulled at 42°C and rested to 51.5°C.

A seasoned beef mince ball on a wire rack standing over a stainless steel pan of softened peppers, onion, carrot and celery, on the cooking grate of a Big Green Egg Large in heavy smoke.
Beef

Over-the-top chilli on a kamado

A mince ball on a rack over the pot, deflector out, two and a half hours direct. Half a teaspoon of paprika, because the kids were eating it.

The finished chicken wings piled on a white plate on a wooden board, glazed deep red-brown and blackened in patches at the edges.
Chicken

BBQ chicken wings with a cherry glaze

The syrup left over from a cherry clafoutis, reduced down into a glaze with soy, cider vinegar and butter. Twenty-five minutes indirect, then three minutes over open coals I just about got away with.
The finished clafoutis in its enamelled steel dish, sunk flat across the middle after coming off the fire
Dessert

Cherry clafoutis on a kamado

Raymond Blanc’s cherry clafoutis baked on the Big Green Egg with the deflector in. It went on too cool at 150°C and sank coming out, and it tasted better than it looked.
The finished charred tomato salsa in the bowl of a food processor, coarsely blitzed with coriander and flecks of char through it
SideGarden glut

Charred tomato salsa on a kamado

A late-August glut of garden tomatoes charred straight on the grid over live coals, then blitzed skins and seeds and all. About 750ml, and it keeps a good week in the fridge.
The finished rack of baby back ribs on a wooden board, meat side up, coarse black pepper still visible across a modest bark
Pork ribs

Baby back ribs on a kamado

A 1.3 kg rack from my butcher, cooked four hours indirect over lump and oak with salt and pepper on it and nothing else. No rub, no sauce, and a smoke ring you can see in the carve.
Eight peach halves cooking on the grid of the Big Green Egg over burnt-down ash, one half torn where the stone came out
Dessert

Barbecued peaches on a kamado

I think peaches are delicious, and barbecued peaches are a new way to enjoy them.

Four s'mores made with digestives and pink blackberry marshmallow on a foil-lined tray on the Big Green Egg, embers visible through the grid
Dessert

S’mores on a kamado

We’d been camping in the summer and it was too dry for campfires, so there were no s’mores to be had.

Beef chuck burnt ends finished and glazed, dark and sticky in a foil-lined tray, coming off the Big Green Egg
Beef chuck

Poor man’s burnt ends

Brisket is very expensive and quite hard to get in the UK unless you order online, so I made these burnt ends with beef chuck.

Four duck legs seasoned with salt and pepper in a foil boat with a little sunflower oil, before going on the Big Green Egg
Duck legs

Duck legs on the Big Green Egg

Duck legs do need slow cooking, and confit is how you keep them tender.

Glazed pork belly burnt ends on a steel tray, with a tomato and basil salad behind
Pork belly

Pork belly burnt ends with a mango chutney glaze

I’ve cooked these pork belly burnt ends twice on my Big Green Egg, in June and again in September.

Raw sausages in a ring round a rubbed bone-in pork loin on the grid of a Big Green Egg, with a foil tray under the grate
Sausages

Smoked sausages on the Big Green Egg

Good butcher’s sausages are normally great, and if you’re going supermarket, I think Heck are good.

Four whole rainbow trout with charred, blistered skin on the grid of a Big Green Egg, with sausages cooking around them
Fish

Whole BBQ trout on the Big Green Egg

My son and I caught these four rainbow trout on a Friday at Tillingbourne Farm, on sweetcorn and a barbless hook, and we ate them on the Sunday.

A baked apple crumble in a white enamel dish, golden on top with toasted flaked almonds
Dessert

BBQ apple crumble on the Big Green Egg

I put this BBQ apple crumble on the Egg as I sat down for the main course.

Lamb rump sliced on a wooden board, pink all the way through with a dark crust
Lamb

Lamb rump on the Big Green Egg

Lamb rump is a brilliant cut.
Slices of bone-in pork loin, pink in the middle, in a white enamel tray with a pile of crackling
Pork

Bone-in pork loin on the Big Green Egg

Brining makes pork loin much juicier and more tender, so this one goes in a salt and sugar brine for 24 hours first.
Pulled pork in a pile on a steel tray, with the shoulder bone and some dark bark to one side
Pork

BBQ pulled pork on the Big Green Egg

You can’t rush BBQ pulled pork.
Instant-read thermometer reading 77.1°C in the beef short rib with the fat cap left on, bark set, on the grate of the BGE Large at the wrap point of a 115°C indirect cook.
Beef

Beef short ribs on a kamado — what a cheaper butcher taught me about the cook

115°C indirect for five and a half hours, foil-wrapped with self-rendered tallow from the drip tray. The technique nailed; the meat is what I’d change next time.

Read the full recipe →
Whole roast chicken with crispy skin on a Broil King vertical roaster, finished on the BGE Large with a 220°C reverse-finish
Vertical roasterChicken

Vertical-roaster chicken on the kamado

A big supermarket chicken, brined, dried overnight and cooked upright on a vertical roaster at 200°C indirect on the kamado.

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Cooked new potatoes, chopped spring onions and tarragon in a metal bowl, before the smoky mayo goes in, for a BBQ potato salad
SideTarragon mayo

Smoky BBQ potato salad on a kamado

New potatoes cooked in a foil packet of sunflower oil, garlic and herbs at 140°C on the kamado.

Read the full recipe →
BBQ pork loin carved on a wooden board, pink all the way through
Pork

BBQ pork loin on a kamado

A 1.5 kg boneless pork loin, cooked at 140°C indirect on the kamado until it reads 63°C, then wrapped in foil and rested in a cold oven for about an hour.

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Bite-size pork crackling drained and salted on kitchen paper, fresh off a Big Green Egg Large kamado
PorkBar snack

Pork crackling on the kamado

Pork crackling from the skin off any cut of pork, cut into bite-size pieces and cooked on a rack over a tray on the kamado.

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About these BBQ recipes

Every recipe here comes from my own cook log — what worked, what didn’t, what I’d change next time. The cook methods are kit-specific, the temperatures are measured rather than estimated, and every recipe links back to the review of the kit it was cooked on. When a cook ran long or came off short of probe-tender, the recipe says so.

If there’s a specific cook you’d like a recipe for, drop me a note via the About page.

Common questions

What are some good things to cook on a kamado grill?

I cook a lot of low-and-slow on mine: pulled pork, beef short ribs, pork belly burnt ends. I also do lamb rump, sausages, whole trout my son and I caught, and puddings like crumble and Basque cheesecake. On a Sunday I’ll often have pork loin, lamb, sausages and a crumble all off the same fire.

What is the first thing I should cook on my Big Green Egg?

I’d start with no food at all. Light it, hold it at about 180°C (355°F) and learn what the vents do. Then cook something cheap or forgiving, like sausages or veg. For your first proper low-and-slow I’d go with a brined pork loin or pork belly at 140°C (285°F) for two or three hours, not pulled pork. You’re eating the same afternoon, and it’s a cheap cut. More in your first low-and-slow.

What are some simple BBQ recipes?

The quick stuff I do most weekends: sausages, chicken thighs, kebabs and burgers, straight over the coals for 15 to 25 minutes.