After years of BBQ'ing, and several years of competing, I decided to try catering. My wife loves it as the money doesn't just flow out now. Here in California, seems what most people want is tri-tip and chicken. The FE-100 is a tri-tip and chicken machine!
Cooking for 100 people is easy - first do the tri-tip. Rub it in a combination of lemon pepper, seasoning salt, and montreal steak seasoning (or anything else you want). Let it sit out for 1/2 hour while you warm up the FE-100 to 350�. Load it up (it holds a lot of tri-tip) and cook the tri-tip to internal temp of 145� (takes about 45 minutes to one hour). 145� might seem high to some people, but it's what most people seem to like.
When you carve it up, it's not that appetizing to have blood running all over the place. When the meat gets to around 138�, kick the temp up to high for a good Maillard crust for about 10 minutes.
Anyhow, while the tri-tip is cooking, take the backbone out of whole chickens (my favorite way of doing it - you could also just do leg quarters to save money), rub them, and take the tri-tip out and put it in a Cambro in a deep hotel pan (to catch the juices).
Turn the FE-100 back to 350, and put the chickens on (can easily fit 3 chickens on each rack - could probably fit 4 but that might be pushing it). Cook chickens to 160� in breast (takes 1 1/2 - 2 hours). Turn cooker off, cut chicken up into pieces, put in aluminum pan, and put back in cooker to keep warm. Now you're ready to serve. Carve the tri-tip to order, put the chicken in a chafer.
Tri-tip comes out with a small smoke ring, chicken is nice and juicy. everybody is happy. Serve with pinquito beans ranchero style, green salad, potato salad, salsa, sauce, and garlic bread (done on a grill).
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