For the best chicken

I own a new Performer and have been a long time reader of this form. Was wondering how to get
the ultimate chicken. Would spatchcock, Weber
Poulry holder or rotisserie be best and would brining or marinating the whole bird be a choice., did a brine last night of a spatchcock chicken and it came out pretty good, but the skin came out sort of dry as I
put 2 chunks of hickory but the flavor was great. My next test will be a brined whole
chicken and put on the roaster and cooked
to 175. I love the flavor of the Portuguese
chicken. I'm trying to replicate that chicken.
I know its cooked slowly 40-45 minutes but that
all I know, I did make my own piri piri sauce.

Thanks
Anthony

'Ultimate' is fairly subjective. For me, I don't feel it matters if you split the chicken or not so I let however I'm presenting/serving determine this. Mostly I cook whole. I've never quite understood the fascination with holders and beer cans and such. Chickens sit on the grill just fine by themselves. If an infused flavor is desired I think you get much more mileage out of a flavor brine than sticking a few aromatics and whatever liquid into a beer can.

More often than not these days I don't brine. I make whatever rub I feel like and some gets mixed with butter and gets worked under the skin, the rest gets sprinkled on lightly oiled skin and into the cavities. The cavities also gets a few aromatics added. (I use this rub approach even if I do brine.)

I favor chickens ~3 lbs, free range, air chilled.

For me the big deal is high heat. I cook chickens at 450-500 usually. I like a breast temp not higher than 160 and crisp skin.

The chickens I marinate I tend to rotis. Those I cook at a lower temp (350-400) because of the oil in the marinades I make. (I do Portuguese chicken too--frango piri-piri--sometimes with split chickens, sometimes rotis'd.)

If I use wood with chicken it is usually a light wood and in a very small quantity.

I guess for me there isn't an 'ultimate' chicken; there are several approaches I use and like.

The best chicken I had ever made was an accident...... I don't recall doing anything special to prep the bird - it was cut in half - other then a rub. Anyway, in my younger and naive days as a pit master I never paid much attention to the volume of fuel, so on this evening I loaded too much charcoal onto the grate. I knew enough to have a safe zone for indirect heat, but in a short amount of time my temps were 550 degrees +. I figured I was going to go hungry that night as carbon isn't the tastiest things I have ever had, but I kept on anyway. Well to my surprise it turned out awesome, especially the skin. In fact, that day marked the last time a chicken skin ever came back to slap me in the face, if you know what I mean. I don't know if this is technically accurate, but I figured I had been cooking at temps much to low for the textures I preferred. I may not be the sharpest knife in the kitchen, but I have produced much tastier birds ever since.

Q'n, Golf'n & Grill'n....too many choices.
Gary

Yes. I am a skin fan. High heat gets you there.

Thanks Kevin, I played with the
bottom vent and had the temp between 350-400
but will definately go for the higher temp next
time a bird goes on the grill, plus will try your piri-piri chicken recipe. I use the Weber
roaster so I don't have to use a drip pan..and clean up is a breeze..

Anthony

Give the frango a shot and see what you think. The recipe is very tweakable. I've taken to using fresh squeezed grapefruit juice in the marinade (but still serve with lemons).

Make sure to pull the chickens out of the fridge and marinade in ample time so as to allow them to warm toward room temp before cooking.

I do have some Molho piri piri sauce that I made sitting in the fridge, so all I have to do is addthe appropriate lemon or acide, will do this with 2 halves indirect, what temp should I aim for?

Funny a friend of mine who eats BBQ chicken
at his boss's house who is Portuguese says never
lemon in their Molho marinade, but I will try it next cook for sure. I think I'm getting closer to my Portuguese chicken.

Thanks
Anthony