Grilling: Barbecue Chicken
Each week Joshua Bousel drops by with a recipe for you to grill over the weekend. Fire it up, Joshua!
Along with lighter fluid, another common grilling sight that pains me to no end is improperly cooked barbecue chicken. I don't know how many burnt pieces of chicken need to be eaten until we realize that barbecue sauce is not a marinade. Cooking barbecue chicken properly is pretty simple, and produces heavenly results.
Since barbecue sauce has a lot of sugars that burn quickly over high heat, the trick to perfect barbecue chicken is grilling over a two-zone fire, and only applying the sauce after the chicken is mostly cooked. First you grill the chicken, covered, over the cool side of the grill until the skin starts to brown and crisp. Then move the chicken closer to the flames, but not directly over them, and start mopping on the sauce. This will give the chicken time to absorb the flavors of the sauce without it burning. Then, which the chicken is almost completely done, apply a last layer of sauce and move directly over the coals, grilling until the sauce caramelizes, not burns. This juicy chicken has all of the sticky-sweet flavors of the sauce, minus the burnt nastiness that I see way too often on barbecue chicken.
Barbecue Chicken
Adapted from Cook's Country.
Ingredients
3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces (breasts, whole legs, thighs, and/or drumsticks), trimmed and breasts halved
4 tablespoons of your favorite barbecue rub
4 cups of your favorite barbecue sauce
Procedure
1. Pat chicken dry with paper towels and rub chicken pieces liberally with the barbecue rub.
2. Light a chimney 3/4 full of charcoal. When charcoal is fully lit and covered in gray ash, pour coals out and arrange them on one side of the charcoal grate, keeping the other side empty. If you'd like your chicken to have a smokey flavor, you can add 1 chunk, or a handful of soaked chips, of a light smoking wood, like apple or cherry, to the fire. Clean and oil the cooking grate. Place chicken, skin side down, on the cool side of the grill and cover. Cook until chicken begins to brown, about 30 to 35 minutes.
3. Move the chicken closer to, but not over, the coals. Begin flipping chicken and brushing liberally with the sauce every 5 minutes until sticky, about 20 minutes.
4. Slide chicken pieces over coals and continue to brush chicken until sauce on chicken becomes crusted and internal temperature of breast meat registers 165 degrees and legs, thighs, and drumsticks register 175 degrees, about 5 minutes. Transfer chicken to platter and let rest 10 minutes. Serve with remaining sauce on the side.
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21 Comments:
Now that's what I'm talking bout!
jscarpetta at 12:14PM on 05/23/09
Clearly, this is a good way to do it. But I must say, I like the burnt taste, or maybe just very deep caramelization (black, though - it does have to be black). I like burnt toast, too.
Likeswords at 1:39PM on 05/23/09
Seems like an awful lot of work to cook some chicken. What I like to do is put the chicken right over the flame then baste it with more barbecue sauce every minute or so until it is nice and crispy.
redfish at 3:36PM on 05/23/09
That's the way to do it. I've lined my BBQ with bricks, which makes for a more even heat.
Andreas at 7:44PM on 05/23/09
A good brining will also keep the meat moist.
winebill at 4:50AM on 05/24/09
I hate barbecue sauce. Brining, however, is a very good thing!
Here's a good brine for just about anything, but especially chicken.
Gremolata Brine
For the bouquet garni:
2 TBSP Dried Parsley (fresh will work as well or better)
1 TBSP dried sage
1 TBSP dried rosemary
2 Teaspoons of dried thyme
5 cloves of garlic (more if they're tiny)
1 teaspoon of black peppercorns
I make my bouquet garni with large coffee filters and bread bag ties.
Put two cups of chlorine free water in a sauce pan along with the bouquet garni and two tablespoons of salt. Bring the water to a rolling boil and then shut off the heat. Let the bouquet garni steep for an hour or two. Add two cups of orange juice and then mix the liquid with two cups of ice. Put for or five pieces of chicken in large Ziploc bag. Put the bag into a dish or pot and store it in the fridge for 24 hrs.
Pat the chicken good and dry prior to cooking. This will help the skin to crisp. I usually cook mine in the oven at 375F, but if you want a smokey flavor it is hard to beat the barbecue pit. Cook the chicken until it wants to fall off the bone. Brined meat is much more heat tolerant than meat right out of the package.
Grumpy Old Man at 12:53PM on 05/24/09
I gotta say, I think you've got it backwards. I like to cook my chicken slow and low, at around 250-300 or so for an hour or so -- as long as I can take it, really -- turning every now and again. No sauce, just a basic bbq rub of brown sugar, salt, and spices. Once the chicken is fully cooked, then I put the sauce on and let it sit on there for another 15-20 minutes or so, letting the sauce slooowly carmelize. You still get that sticky-sweet, beautifully carmelized bbq flavor, but the chicken, at this point, has been cooked to an indescribable perfection and falls right off the bone (without being at all dry -- especially if you brine beforehand). And the skin! You don't know chicken skin till it's been slow-cooked for an hour or so. It's almost as good as fried and it soaks up the bbq sauce like salt soaks up a wine spill.
I thought your picture above was an example of how your bbq should NOT look! Look at the poorly cooked skin peeling back, all that blackened bbq sauce... it's horrid!
johnhutch at 2:25PM on 05/26/09
@johnhutch: I have not been able to get good skin cooking my chicken low and slow. Even though the chicken is moist and flavorful, the skin always ends up pale and limp. Whenever I smoke chicken at a low temp, I like to throw it on the hot grill to let the skin crisp slightly at the end. When you do this, the skin does peel back a bit, but it gets a nice crunch, which is a good trade off in my book :)
Joshua Bousel at 2:31PM on 05/26/09
Slow and low is the true meaning behind the term BBQ. It has nothing to do with the sauce that's put on the meat, or what the grill is called. That's a pet peeve of mine. Even a bigger pet peave for me, than Josh's hatred of lighter fluid I am willing to bet. (I've seen people use gasoline before. No joke. I bet Josh would have lost it!)
I pretty much use Johns method when cooking bone in chicken in the smoker. There are times I have used Josh's method as well. It more or less depends on how much wood or charcoal I have on hand at the time.
If you go with the slow and low method, you can get crispy skin every time if you rotate the chicken regular and pay close attention the pit temp.
Either method you use, will result in some good eats though.
winebill mentioned the good ol' brine. I only use that method when cooking boneless chicken on the grill. It works like a charm every single time.
Raiders757 at 7:27PM on 05/26/09
@Raiders757: The barbecue/grilling terminology is another pet peeve of mine as well. This post was particularly difficult, because everyone calls chicken grilled with barbecue sauce, "barbecue chicken," even though that's a misnomer. I hoped calling it "Grilling: Barbecue Chicken" would cover me though. :)
Joshua Bousel at 9:21PM on 05/26/09
Another alternative to grilling chicken, is putting it in the microwave for 5 minutes. It is partially cooked, and then complete cooking on the grill with your barbecue sauce. It doesnt burn, since the chicken is partially cooked when in the microwave, and it is juicy,crispy and delicious when completed on the grill with your favorite sauce.
We also use this method for ribs. Except we boil the ribs in water until they are partially cooked, and then take them out and grill them with sauce. The meat is tender, juicy, delicious and crispy w/ the sauce that we basted on the ribs. There is no burning on the grill, because most of the fat was removed when the food is precooked.
pierre1 at 2:50PM on 05/27/09
I use the same method and this works well with me. I like to grill several pieces of chicken with a couple of different sauces. This way you can experience a couple of flavors. The trick is to remember which pieces have which sauce.
ArmadilloPepper at 6:00PM on 05/27/09
@pierre1: Can I plead with you not to boil your ribs anymore? It removes a lot of natural flavor from the pork.
Instead, try smoking them around 225 degrees on your grill or smoker for about 3 hours for lion (baby) backs, or 5-6 hours for spare ribs. You'll get all the flavors of the pork working in perfect harmony with the rub, smoke, and sauce...everything ribs should be!
Joshua Bousel at 11:44PM on 05/27/09
DO NOT BOIL ANYTHING TO BE BBQ'ed!
Burnt sauce, meat or any other food produces turpentine as a by-product and it tastes bad
I used to burn alot of grilled food and have learned quite a bit.
Use a high quality fuel you are comfortable with
DO NOT USE STARTER FLUIDS or any other quick start chemicals
Invest in a chimeny charcoal starter only uses paper and is cheap
Control your heat [avoid rocket engine white hot heat]
Learn your grill and how to use it
Be prepared have all tools and food in place and ready to use
Pay attention to your grill [dont leave especially when cooking hot]
FIRE EXTINGUISHER !
Start with quality ingredients [doesn't have to be KOBE or Waygu beef] just fresh and wholesome
It doesn't take a high dollar rig to produce great food. I'm sure others like myself have fashioned a grill out of mostly or all found materials and produced great feasts.
shipwreck at 1:17PM on 05/28/09
He who boils shall have boils unto his drumstick . Verily I say unto you that chicken prepped in microwave will will cast your nether regions into fiery gomorah .
jfitz at 10:36AM on 05/30/09
Hey jfitz...wish you could just tell us how you feel. ;)
As a competition barbeque guy, I'm glad to see this post...good info and comments (except for the boiling suggestion...blasphemy!). Though I am going to do my part to make sure my catering clients don't see this post...don't want them to know the 'secret' to excellent barbeque chicken, and how easy it really is to make. :)
Carpe 'Que,
Jim Rhino
BanditBBQ at 12:08PM on 06/01/09
Yikes on the boiling! I understand your theory, but as others have explained here, it is a HUGE error in judgment. My suggestion to you, if you must pre-cook your ribs or anything else:
Remove the membrane from the ribs.
Coat liberally with your favorite rub.
Wrap in plastic wrap and foil overnight and refrigerate.
Remove from wrap and wrap again in heavy foil.
Cook in oven about 3 hours at 250.
Fire up your grill--I use an electric starter, but chimneys are just as easy--and "finish" the ribs on the grill. Any sauce is your choice, but follow the directions here and put it on at the very end of the grilling process (last 5-10 minutes if you are grilling over the gray coals or wood) and then serve.
I don't like this method, but if it is raining or if you just don't have the time to sit out with the food while it cooks low and slow in a smoker, and you are willing to give-up the great taste of low-slow cooking, this is MUCH better than boiling!
Please don't boil ribs. Boiling is for eggs and pasta.
richopp at 12:24PM on 06/01/09
Please tell me how to get good grilled chicken on a gas grill. I have a 4 burner (horizontal burners) Weber. I think I get the idea of 2 zone heating, certainly for non-gas grills, but I'd like to know how you can achieve the same good results with my grill. The answer is NOT to buy a "real grill" ;-)
I can't manage it. I admit to being a wuss when it comes to fire.
joannabar at 2:13PM on 06/01/09
Thanks! And "Amen, brother" to the indirect cooking technique. Also, the "close-to-the-fire-but-not-on-it technique" after the sauce!
To the previous: (joannabar?) I have the same Weber gas grill. It's wonderful. When you cook with the indirect method, heat all of the burners for 20 mins (600 degrees). Then turn off the back burners and cook your chicken on that surface. You have to "reach over" the heated surface, but wear a mitt. It's worth it! Also, replace the flimsy grates that came with your grill, and buy the staineless steel replacements (about $60 at True Value). You won't be sorry.
Kalamazoo at 9:42PM on 06/01/09
@johnhutch
that is correct. how do you guys think bbq places do it? barbecue = slow and a long time. basically you will never be patient enough to overcook it. it'll get nice and sticky-crispy, you just gotta be patient. man we cooked a cabrito for 14 hours once.
texasuk at 6:12PM on 06/03/09
This is my first attempt at BBQ and thanks for the heads up ....it came out perfect.
here's a link to the finish product...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36137078@N08/3642566276/sizes/l/
dadnerd at 10:22PM on 06/19/09