How much solar power does it take to roast a whole chicken in 10 minutes?
Sila Sutharat sells Thai roasted chicken at his stall in Bangkok, roasted under an array of sun-concentrating mirrors. It's a simple idea — one that many old solar ovens and newer solar energy farms are using — but it's the cooking time that surprised me: just 10 minutes for a whole chicken, claims Sutharat. Gizmodo's Mark Wilson thinks that the secret is in the marinade which, according to Wilson's theory, is highly acidic, effectively pre-cooking the chickens.
Now I'm curious. Have any of you guys built a solar-powered roaster before? I kind of want to try and make one, but it would probably be pretty wasteful to build a giant concave mirror concentrator just to roast the occasional chicken. This guy's saying he's knocking out 50 chickens a day, but there's no picture of his reflector.
Sun-cooked chickens are hot [BangKok Post (Google Cache) via Gizmodo via Inventor Spot]
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The chicken is butterfly or "spatchcocked," increasing surface contact with heat and greatly decreasing cooking time. A marinade will probably only denature surface proteins, barring removal of that tasty, tasy chicken skin.
I've been to Bangkok a few times and while the stifling heat and humidity press down on you like a 20-ton steam-heated moist towelette, the sun isn't always shining. It tends to rain a lot. Wonder how much downtime he has.
Still, I'd buy a sun-seared chicken from this guy. Looks tasty.
Rob from cockeyed.com build himself quite the solar death ray using a satellite dish and mirrors. He probably could have roasted the heck out of a chicken. Check it out: http://www.cockeyed.com/incredible/solardish/dish01.shtml
I can believe ten minutes easy. It looks like he's deboned the chickens, making them flatter and allowing a much faster cooking time.
@Dustin Driver: the article says he does 50 chickens a day, and it shows him cooking a dozen at a time. He really only needs an hour of sunshine, in ten minute chunks.
Now the bit about being able to roast a suckling pig because of global warming is a bit of a stretch. You could do this as easily in Iceland as Thailand; you just need some good sunlight and a hella mighty mirror.
@Alan: Actually, it looks like he spatchcocked the chicken, which is a great way to decrease cooking times and ensure even cooking.
Also: marinading (even with something very acidic) "pre-cooking" the chicken? Remind me not to eat at Mark Wilson's. It might work for fish, but there's a reason you never see chicken ceviche.
W000T - Whether or not it kills the bacteria, anything acidic will denature the proteins in meat, thus at least making it look cooked. You can show it at home - dice some chicken and leave it to marinade in lemon juice for 20 minutes. The outside of the pieces will at least look cooked.
Although I've never tested it as a cooking method for chicken, the inside of any normal-looking muscle should be pretty free from any nasty bugs. All of the bacteria we worry about are on the skin, feathers and to a lesser exetent in the digestive tract.
Given hygenic preparation (which I'm not saying that the solar shack above has) raw chicken should be as safe as sushi. Steak tartare and a similar dish I tried in Italy (it was ground beef steak with lemon juice, oil and herbs - delicious!) rely on the same idea.
Note: I know a bit about micobiology but I'm neither a doctor nor a chef. If any adventurous souls decide to try lemon-cooked chicken, I'm not guarrunteeing that you'll be fine!
Thanks, w000t. I should've noticed; my brother does the spatchcock method on a grill. A mighty fine way to cook a bird.