Grilling hubris

I realized tonight, with a great thud, that I am still truly a novice griller. It was my night to cook for Supper Club, free range chicken thighs were on sale, sounds good, right? Last night I prepped the chicken, with a special rub and some olive oil. This morning I baked pound cakes, scrubbed potatoes and wrapped them in foil. With Steve's help, the 'taters baked while I was at work this afternoon. Came home, peeled and chopped carrots, wrapped the cakes to go, and put the chicken on the grill. That's when things went very very bad.

The Weber Big Book of Grilling says thighs with bone & skin should be cooked skin side up over indirect medium heat. It also says you can sear the skin first for effect over direct medium heat. That's what I tried to do. Next thing I know great clouds of smoke are billowing out of the grill. I open it up to find flames leaping, and one third of the pieces charred. Feeling very silly for trying to do this on Supper Club night, I managed to salvage most of them. Then the "are they cooked all the way through?" paranoia set in.

Meanwhile, the carrots are cooking along, and my friends start to arrive to pick up their dinner. I pull the thighs off the grill with a little prayer that they are all fully cooked. Two of my pals swear they "like them a little crispy." As I prepare to serve my own family the most charred pieces, I remember that Steve doesn't like grilled food if it involves any charring at all. And he's not fond of baked potatoes. And carrots aren't his favorite. (He did eat some chicken and carrots and did not complain)

Sigh.

The pound cake was very, very good.