Apparatus for cooking whole chickens

DETAILED DESCRIPTION It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide an improved apparatus and method for broiled cooking of whole chickens and other poultry on an automated conveyorized basis.
A particular object of the present invention is to provide a novel conveyor arrangement for reliably supporting whole chicken carcasses in an open generally flat condition to facilitate cooking uniformity.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a reliable arrangement for automatically removing cooked chicken carcasses from the conveyor arrangement at the completion of the cooking process.
The present invention contemplates the preliminary preparation of whole chicken carcasses for cooking by severing each carcass along its breast bone and opening the carcass into a generally flat condition wherein its internal chest and abdominal cavity forms one side of the chicken carcass and its breast, back, wings, thighs and legs form the opposite side of the chicken carcass.
Briefly summarized, the cooking apparatus of the present invention basically comprises an arrangement for generating cooking energy utilizing a pair of energy-emitting faces spaced from one another in generally upright laterally-opposed facing relation for defining therebetween a cooking area and an endless conveyor for transporting whole chicken carcasses individually along a cooking path through the cooking area between the energy-emitting faces.
According to the present invention, the conveyor has a plurality of support members spaced therealong, each of which is configured for suspending one chicken leg therefrom.
Each such support member is sufficiently spaced from another such support member for cooperatively suspending a whole chicken carcass by its legs with the legs sufficiently spread from one another to maintain the chicken carcass opened in its afore-described generally flat condition.
As will be understood, each leg of each chicken carcass has a free end terminating at a knuckle which is relatively enlarged with respect to the adjacent portion of the chicken leg