First try – Cooking on a Mexican clay chiminea

So you can cook on a chiminea. Cooking on a Mexican clay chiminea is very easy and the results are awesome. Our friends in Devon have given it a go for the first time, cooking a couple of veggie burgers on their new Mexican clay chiminea. They’ve sent us photos and a story, so let’s dive in and see what occurred.

First, light the fire

It was a gorgeous sunny day, with dappled shade in the wood. The chiminea had already been carefully seasoned with a small fire, and used several times since then as a garden heater. So the fire lighting part was nice and easy.

Cooking on a Mexican clay chiminea – How to light a chiminea

First, make a pyramid of small sticks and other kindling on top of the layer of lava stones that protect the chim’s belly against heat stress. Second, light the firelighter. The wood shaving and wax ones are brilliant. They burn for ages so the fuel catches light really well, even if it’s a bit damp. Then let the fire develop and mature, gradually adding wood until, like a barbecue, you get a decent layer of glowing hot charcoal to cook on.

Here she is, crackling away. There’s nothing like the sound of a real fire to make you feel good.

Crazy magic matches!

The Cook’s Matches were found in a shed six years ago. They’d been there for at least five years. That makes them eleven years old or more… and they still work. Our friends just opened the lid, put the box in the sun for 15 minutes, and they were dry enough to light. Funny.

Our friends are not great cooks. They are happy to admit it. So they started off with something really easy, just to prove the concept that you can cook up a storm on a chim. They felt a bit nervous at first, as novices, but as soon as the charcoal layer had developed, it was obvious… aha, so a chim works exactly like a BBQ. Simples!

It wasn’t necessary to add a grill inside the chim but our friends did it anyway, balancing a cheap old broken metal grill on top of the charcoal. They won’t bother with that next time. There’s really no need.

A fantastic quality BBQ grill

The removable barbecue grill is a fantastic chiminea accessory. It balances firmly in the mouth of the chiminea, cleverly bracing itself against the back of the belly and the rim at the bottom of the mouth so there’s no chance of anything falling off or it tipping over. The two side rails help keep your food in place while it cooks. The wooden handle keeps things cool so you don’t burn your fingers. It’s big enough to cook loads of food, not just a couple of burgers as pictured.

An equally fab poker

The poker we featured in the post where our friends first seasoned their chiminea proved its worth as well. As did the tongs. Together they made short work of shifting chunks of wood around and keeping the fire under control, burning efficiently.

One thing to bear in mind… these things cook very quickly and efficiently. Your food might be ready faster than you imagine. These veggie burgers took five minutes less than the instructions on the package said.

The results?

As you can see, cooking on a Mexican clay chiminea is fun as well as easy, and the results are very tasty indeed. See the classic striped BBQ grill finish? These already-delicious veggie burgers tasted even better cooked on the chiminea, with lots more flavour thanks to the wood smoke and real flames.

At this point it started raining so our chefs ate their burgers with a crisp salad indoors. The heat died down pretty quickly, so it was safe to leave the chiminea to cool without supervision.

Next time our less-than-confident chefs will try something a bit more elaborate. They’re keen to get busy with fresh fish and vegetable kebabs, and toasted marshmallows for afters sounds pretty good!