Old school, new twist, chicken leg quarters


 
Brett-EDH

Brett-EDH

TVWBB Olympian
Paying homage to when I first learned to grill chicken. We thought Wishbone Italian dressing was all you needed.

I won’t admit to how many times I ate this as a kid. But here’s to a more modern and flavorful twist on an old favorite.

Dry brined the chicken with kosher salt.

Then made my own Italian dressing:
Cooking olive oil
Red wine vinegar
Apple cider vinegar
Water
Minced garlic
Red pepper flakes
Black pepper
Granulated onion
Dried oregano
Dried Italian herbs blend
Sugar

Combine and mixed all ingredients. Wanted a slightly more acidic profile so added a dash more of both vinegars.

After chicken was dry brined for one hour, applied the Italian dressing. Covered and back into the fridge for 4 hours.

And making some green and purple slaw. And we’ve got corn on the cob for tonight.

Cheers to savoring the past with new techniques!

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Rich Dahl said:
Does that bring back memories of years gone by. Like your new twist on an old favorite Brett.
Did you measure out the ingredients or just wing it or maybe I should say leg it?
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Just assembled the dressing by flavor profile. It’s about 1/3 oil to 2/3 vinegar and then a splash of water as the base. Herbs and seasoning to your tastes. I’d start with 1 tsp of each and build from there. I went heavy on the minced garlic and only 1-2 tsp on sugar. We like oregano thus oregano and Italian herbs mixture in a 1:1 ratio.

Since the chicken was already salted, I omitted salt from the dressing.

I prefer the mix of the red wine vinegar and apple cider vinegar together. Each on their own is too pronounced in my opinion.

Lmk if you have additional questions. With your skill level you can easily make this. And for much less than buying it at the store and your ingredients will be healthier and taste better.
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
That is a memory jogger! We used to do that a lot!
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I’ll make a bet here. My guess is that over 80% of us made Italian dressing chicken from a bottle when we started out.

IIRC, it was even marketed that way with TV commercials. I don’t even remember the last time I bought that dressing or made chicken with it.
 
funny thing is they still market it as a marinade.

But it never penetrated the chicken. All the flavor was on the skin. You gotta salt your bird to get the meat to drink up the marinade.

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As I guessed, their ingredients list leaves a lot to be desired. These are very cheap ingredients to manufacture with.

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Brett-EDH said:
Just assembled the dressing by flavor profile. It’s about 1/3 oil to 2/3 vinegar and then a splash of water as the base. Herbs and seasoning to your tastes. I’d start with 1 tsp of each and build from there. I went heavy on the minced garlic and only 1-2 tsp on sugar. We like oregano thus oregano and Italian herbs mixture in a 1:1 ratio.

Since the chicken was already salted, I omitted salt from the dressing.

I prefer the mix of the red wine vinegar and apple cider vinegar together. Each on their own is too pronounced in my opinion.

Lmk if you have additional questions. With your skill level you can easily make this. And for much less than buying it at the store and your ingredients will be healthier and taste better.
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Sounds like the way I fly, build a base and go from there. Thanks for the reply.
 
For other WSC/K owners, I’m using a V- coal formation. This gives a large useable grill area for indirect cooking and being able to sear when needed. And heavy aluminum foil as my drip tray because chicken, well, is juicy and likes to gunk up a grill.

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Chicken is on 425° target temp.

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Corn, rinsed and in its husk for steaming in foil. Will then move to char it at end of its cook.

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Brett-EDH said:
I’ll make a bet here. My guess is that over 80% of us made Italian dressing chicken from a bottle when we started out.

IIRC, it was even marketed that way with TV commercials. I don’t even remember the last time I bought that dressing or made chicken with it.
Click to expand...
No bet!
And, yes I remember those ads! Just throwing it in a bag with the stuff didn’t do much, lifting the skin to get it under was better.
 
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