I may have cooked my last chicken wing....


 
MikeLucky

MikeLucky

TVWBB Pro
To borrow a phrase from DanHoo. lol

Butterflied chicken legs. Amazing.

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I lost my Dad this year on Jan. 2nd. I was particularly missing him today. He loved golf and grilling. So, I spent the afternoon in the garage, watching the PGA Championship and grilling. Back in the day my Dad would either grill steaks or chicken slathered with caramelized BBQ sauce on it. So, I sauced some the legs, mostly for nostalgia but they turned out REALLY good. They were super easy to butterfly and boy did they cook up nicely. Got it very hot at first then shut the vents down to slow them down for timing with the rest of dinner. Used a mix of Head Country Original, Banchan's Japanese BBQ Sauce, and some Valentina hot sauce for spice. Much meatier than wings, easy to eat, tender and juicy. Even the skin came out crispy. Cooked them at around 325 degrees for the majority of the cook, indirect for about an hour and 15 minutes. Sauced for the last 20 minutes and finished the sauced pieces directly over the coals for about a minute on each side.

But, the real headline is that at $0.90 a pound, this was a no-brainer. Again, might be done with wings....
 
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Sorry for your loss. It’s almost a year since my dad passed. Not a day goes by I don’t think of him and my mom.

Nice cook there. I saw a similar recipe this past week and added that to my list of need to cook.
 
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MikeLucky said:
To borrow a phrase from DanHoo. lol

Butterflied chicken legs. Amazing.

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I lost my Dad this year on Jan. 2nd. I was particularly missing him today. He loved golf and grilling. So, I spent the afternoon in the garage, watching the PGA Championship and grilling. Back in the day my Dad would either grill steaks or chicken slathered with caramelized BBQ sauce on it. So, I sauced some the legs, mostly for nostalgia but they turned out REALLY good. They were super easy to butterfly and boy did they cook up nicely. Got it very hot at first then shut the vents down to slow them down for timing with the rest of dinner. Used a mix of Head Country Original, Banchan's Japanese BBQ Sauce, and some Valentina hot sauce for spice. Much meatier than wings, easy to eat, tender and juicy. Even the skin came out crispy. Cooked them at around 325 degrees for the majority of the cook, indirect for about an hour and 15 minutes. Sauced for the last 20 minutes and finished the sauced pieces directly over the coals for about a minute on each side.

But, the real headline is that at $0.90 a pound, this was a no-brainer. Again, might be done with wings....
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Cool way to keep your dads memory alive and eat some delicious vittles too. I had never thought about butterflying legs before to see how they cook up. Did you sear at high heat before indirect at 325. I see your dome lid is at 470... thats pretty damn hot
 
Tim-wannabe-smoker said:
Cool way to keep your dads memory alive and eat some delicious vittles too. I had never thought about butterflying legs before to see how they cook up. Did you sear at high heat before indirect at 325. I see your dome lid is at 470... thats pretty damn hot
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I started them indirect at the high heat but realized they would be done too soon as my wife was making the rest of dinner to be ready an hour later. lol. So, I backed down the vents and did almost the entire cook indirect until the last couple of minutes directly over the coals for that last bit of caramelization and crisp to show up. And, yeah, this old SSP still gets very hot. I hadn't used it since we moved here to Georgia back in November. Been using my Q1200 and my Char Q instead. But, now that I'm using the Performer again, I'm reminded how great it is to cook on. I've missed her.
 
Sorry for your loss. To this day I miss my Dad and his wit and wisdom, he passed 39 years ago. My Mom 66 years ago.
Have to say I've never seen butterflied leg quarters before, but I like it. As a matter of fact, I like the whole meal, my kind of dinner.
Going to try that, been using the Jumbo joe, but a good excuse to fire up the performer, it's been a while.
We have a ton of thighs and quarters in the freezer, every time they are on sale for under a buck, I stock up. Frys just had whole fryers for $.97 a pound, got six of those.
 
I am interested in your butterfly procedure.
I have never even thought of doing this till now as it makes sense.
Explain please or links to process, videos etc.
 
Kevin L (NKY) said:
Thank you Brett just what I was looking for, I like the detail of several sallow cuts to fan out the leg. So I am guessing I could also do this with leg quarter. Which would be excellant as you can spread out the cooking surface
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i score the tops of the leg quarters in a hash pattern. doing so exposes the meat to more surface area for rub or marinades. i'm a fan of cooking quarters this way.
 
Kevin L (NKY) said:
Thank you Brett just what I was looking for, I like the detail of several sallow cuts to fan out the leg. So I am guessing I could also do this with leg quarter. Which would be excellant as you can spread out the cooking surface
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So, I make sure to make the initial cut is on the side where the skin is the most shallow so that the skin stays spread out over the meat on the skin side. And, I found that you want to pretty much have the meat completely detached from the top knuckle. Once you get started you'll get a knack for it. It was way easier than I expected.
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Cut along the short side where the red lines are.
 
BBQ thighs, drums and of course wings is good stuff. You want something really good, bread your thighs like you were going to fry them, but BBQ them instead. Keep the BBQ between 350 and 375, because over 375 burns the breading
 
We were at Sam's Club yesterday and they had drumsticks for $ .99/lb. Picked up ~20 lbs. so will be trying some butterflied buffalo legs in the near future. Finally cleaned out and defrosted the chest freezer so have room for deals when i find them now :) Even pulled out a big pork shoulder. Miriam is making up a batch of Andouille and I get the left over 6 1/2 lbs. for some hot Italian sausage. Will post the recipe in the recipe forum as well. This stuff is spicy!
 

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Bob Bailey said:
We were at Sam's Club yesterday and they had drumsticks for $ .99/lb. Picked up ~20 lbs. so will be trying some butterflied buffalo legs in the near future. Finally cleaned out and defrosted the chest freezer so have room for deals when i find them now :) Even pulled out a big pork shoulder. Miriam is making up a batch of Andouille and I get the left over 6 1/2 lbs. for some hot Italian sausage. Will post the recipe in the recipe forum as well. This stuff is spicy!
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That's exactly where I got this batch of legs for $.90 a pound. Wings were almost $3.00 a pound at the same store. Just sayin. lol
 
I like wings, but wife prefers legs, so we alternate. Probably do legs a little more these days since the price of wings went crazy.

I've never seen the butterfly method, but I can't wait to try it.

If you have time, a good brine of wings or legs makes a noticeable difference in how plump and juicy they will be when done. I make a fairly weak salt/water brine, add the legs for an hour or two in the fridge, rinse and dry with paper towels, then season lightly with Tony Chachere's. I go light on the brine and the Tony's because both add salt.

I do not put sugar in the brine as some suggest; I find the skin tends to blacken from the sugar. I get plenty of color on wings/legs from cherry wood.

I cook them on a kettle indirect with a chimney full of Kingsford roaring on one side in a Slow 'n Sear, with some small pieces of cherry/apple/oak added. Vents wide open for high heat. Turn after 20-30 minutes and cook until to temp. Sometimes I crisp them a bit over direct at the end, but they usually don't need it.
 
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