What, in your mind, is "barbecued chicken"?


 
Andy Kaminski said:
Grabbed 3 small packs of improperly labeled chicken thighs.

The over all best was the skinless boneles.
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Any time I come across a recipe that calls for BSCBs I automatically substitute BSCTs, although sometimes they can be a little hard to find. I find their flavor and resistance to drying out to be much better.
 
BBQ chicken has and will always be chicken parts grilled over a hot flame with bbq sauce (sweet, vinegar based, sugar free, Alabama white or whatever sauce money can buy) slathered from top to bottom and side to side, served with an ice cold beer, sides and triangular cut white bread (2 pieces).
 
Dang. This thread burst my bubble.

First, it made me realize that I call three different things "BBQ chicken". One type is shredded chicken meat swimmin' in sauce, which we put on hamburger buns like "sloppy joe." Another type are the boneless skinless chicken breasts that we keep on hand as a convenient frozen staple. Thaw them out, let them marinate in something in a glass pyrex dish, then grill them, slathering sauce on them to caramelize and burn. The third type are whole chickens that can be prepared in various ways. The bottom line definition for us is: If it has chicken meat and some type of barbecue sauce, then we call it "bbq chicken." That is not very precise, I suppose.

Second, it reminded me that I never outgrew the infantile "sugary sweet BBQ sauce" stage from the 1960s. My in-laws still buy and love Open Pit sauce. At our home, we like KC Masterpiece, another sweet sauce. At least it shows an opening to widen my horizons and try other types of sauces.

Third, it highlighted the general cultural expansion and evolution that has been ongoing in our area. What used to be Chris 'n' Pitts in Anaheim is now a Jollibee. (Note: That statement can easily be interpreted the wrong way. Please don't. It is not a complaint or rant. It is only a microcosm example of the broader changes that we have witnessed; indisputable facts we can acknowledge.) To be honest, I ate at Chris 'n' Pitts a few times. I know people who were true fans and loved them, but for me they were not special. For my family and friends' sake, I am pleased to read that three of them are still open for business.
 
Emory....
My first taste of BBQ was at a Chris n Pitts. Was back in the early/mid 1950s, just after that particular site opened. McDonalds was also in the area and just opened. (watch them build that one !)
I do miss the Anaheim site. We were regulars.
 
EmoryG said:
Dang. This thread burst my bubble.

First, it made me realize that I call three different things "BBQ chicken". One type is shredded chicken meat swimmin' in sauce, which we put on hamburger buns like "sloppy joe." Another type are the boneless skinless chicken breasts that we keep on hand as a convenient frozen staple. Thaw them out, let them marinate in something in a glass pyrex dish, then grill them, slathering sauce on them to caramelize and burn. The third type are whole chickens that can be prepared in various ways. The bottom line definition for us is: If it has chicken meat and some type of barbecue sauce, then we call it "bbq chicken." That is not very precise, I suppose.

Second, it reminded me that I never outgrew the infantile "sugary sweet BBQ sauce" stage from the 1960s. My in-laws still buy and love Open Pit sauce. At our home, we like KC Masterpiece, another sweet sauce. At least it shows an opening to widen my horizons and try other types of sauces.

Third, it highlighted the general cultural expansion and evolution that has been ongoing in our area. What used to be Chris 'n' Pitts in Anaheim is now a Jollibee. (Note: That statement can easily be interpreted the wrong way. Please don't. It is not a complaint or rant. It is only a microcosm example of the broader changes that we have witnessed; indisputable facts we can acknowledge.) To be honest, I ate at Chris 'n' Pitts a few times. I know people who were true fans and loved them, but for me they were not special. For my family and friends' sake, I am pleased to read that three of them are still open for business.
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I started this thread because I'd noticed, in many comments found in other threads, that there seemed to be a wide range of opinion as to what "good" BBQ chicken was. In fact, my goal was to get some kind of consensus on the topic, to guide my own explorations. (Like you, my concept of BBQ chicken was a sticky-sauced drumstick.) As you may have already guessed, I got the opposite of what I was looking for!

That's fine, though, because I've taken a lot of ideas from the comments here and tried some new recipes. Just a few days ago, for instance, I did Cornell Chicken for the first time. Though it didn't fit my historical definition of "BBQ chicken", it was quite tasty and my wife loved it.

Can't wait for the next experiment!
 
EmoryG said:
Second, it reminded me that I never outgrew the infantile "sugary sweet BBQ sauce" stage from the 1960s. My in-laws still buy and love Open Pit sauce. At our home, we like KC Masterpiece, another sweet sauce.
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I used Open Pit awhile back as a sauce for cocktail franks and it didn't seems all that sweet to me. If I didn't have a bunch of other sauces on hand already I'd probably buy a bottle for research purposes.
 
Grant Cunningham said:
I've traveled to many different BBQ regions in the U.S. and tasted all of the major styles, and it seems that everything is about beef and pork. What little chicken is made is almost an afterthought; sausage seems to get more respect. Don't get me wrong, I like brisket and spareribs, but I also love chicken.

As the kids say, I want to "level up" my chicken cooking.

So I'm wondering what everyone considers BBQ chicken — what, to you, is the "iconic" form? Dry rub? Slathered with KC-style sauce? Alabama white? Is there any love for mustard sauces on chicken?

Alternatively, have you ever had any BBQd chicken that just really impressed you?
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If there is no BBQ sauce, then it’s grilled or roasted in my book.
 
a great thread, for sure - Reading through it, it seems the conclusions are generational. For those of us who caught the BBQ bug watching our folks work their magic on the Weber in the 60's and 70's with Kingsford, way too much lighter fluid, Open Pit (props to who ever remembered that stuff) overdone breasts, probably underdone thighs, bbq chicken was summer.... This was for the most part before brining, rubs, indirect cooking or any of todays more common techniques. It was slamming Manhattans, playing badminton, tossing lawn darts and just having fun....

Today, at the core, really not much has changed -Our BBQ chicken now is maybe a little more refined then the way dad did it - we always brine the pieces - we add rub, cook indirect - but the sauce is still sweet KC style, but just added at the end - Either our house sauce - or I still like score some Sweet Baby Ray's at Costco in the 2 pack for 6 bucks to kick it old school on occasion..

For me, BBQ isn't just a way to prepare food, rather it's a way to celebrate the weekend with family and friends - BBQ chicken is one of favorites - its probably the perfect thing to prepare. Its almost impossible to screw up - it takes some time to cook, but not too much. You get to flip it now and then, move it around, squirt stuff on it, and serve. Even after 40 years of cooking the stuff, it really remains one life's greatest pleasures to prepare!
 
Unfortunately, our closest Red Hot and Blue BBQ restaurant closed. Their menu still features a BBQ Chicken Plate as well as other options. They used to have a Beef, Pork and Chicken Plate that would kill. To me the pulled bchicken was the highlight.
 
Joan said:
Chuck, IF you are ever curious to try Raichlen's recipe for the sauce, here it is.

Huli Huli Sauce

1/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup ketchup
1/3 cup sherry
1 TB. rice vinegar or distilled white vinegar
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 slices (each 1/4" thick) peeled fresh ginger, gently crushed
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 scallion, trimmed, white part gently crushed and green part finely chopped

Place all except scallion greens in a nonreactive saucepan and whisk to mix. Add 2 TB. of water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then let simmer gently until thick and syrupy, about 5 min., whisking to prevent scorching. If the sauce is too thick, add a little more water.
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bumping
 
Joan, very timely bump! As I said just above, good BBQ chicken or smoked chicken with great BBQ sauce is one of the pleasures of this earth. I’ve gotten away from chicken since we moved. One reason is the great rotisserie chicken from Costco-- too easy to enjoy as is. But thanks to your bump, I'm gone back to start reading this entire relatively short thread. In the first page, I'm already hot for chicken and have saved the article on Jamaican jerk chicken (I'm sure I'll save more) which has me hungering for the jerk chicken we had our first night on St. John after the power failed on the whole island. Walking downtown in the flame lit darkness trying to find dinner, it was small barrel grills all around serving up their own take on jerk chicken. One of my most precious memories.

So thank you for that and for the chicken of my own that I'll be getting into. Damn woman! You have my grill/BBQ todos extended out so far! 😀
 
Rich, I know what you mean. Every time I turn around I am looking at something that sounds soo good. There are soo many things I want to try and then there are soo many things that we have tried but want to try again. :rolleyes:
 
How odd I was just thinking that it's been forever since we made Huli Huli chicken and what should appear a recipe from Joan for Huli Huli Sauce. Well that will be going on next week's menu.
Thanks Joan.
 
Grant Cunningham said:
I started this thread because I'd noticed, in many comments found in other threads, that there seemed to be a wide range of opinion as to what "good" BBQ chicken was. In fact, my goal was to get some kind of consensus on the topic, to guide my own explorations. (Like you, my concept of BBQ chicken was a sticky-sauced drumstick.) As you may have already guessed, I got the opposite of what I was looking for!

That's fine, though, because I've taken a lot of ideas from the comments here and tried some new recipes. Just a few days ago, for instance, I did Cornell Chicken for the first time. Though it didn't fit my historical definition of "BBQ chicken", it was quite tasty and my wife loved it.

Can't wait for the next experiment!
Click to expand...

Never heard of Cornell Chicken but I am looking forward to give that recipe a try. Thank you ! ! !

For me, we grew up eating chicken cut into its parts, put into a metal baking pan and cooked (braised?) in a thinned out BBQ sauce (Kraft most often) on the 'ole gasser under low heat. After the pieces were up to temp they went onto the grill to get some caramelization. My dad particularly wanted the more done pieces.

My dad liked to make this an afternoon-long project. So, when he ran the grill, we would get some really overdone yardbird. But there was plenty of leftover sauce to help . . .

Fortunately, he would much rather "supervise" than do the work, so manning the grill soon became my job and I did all that I could to keep some moisture in the meat. I actually introduced my family to indirect cooking by first getting the diluted sauce up to temp and the only using the burner that the cooking pan did not cover to finish the process.





BD
 
Joan said:
Dan, you beat me to it. I was just about to post that back in my younger days, the only thing I can remember my father cooking outside was hot dogs and burgers. My mother would take care of the chicken inside.
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I came across this post and it reminded me of the first time I ever had really good home BBQ. Shortly after I got married and graduated, a good friend (from NJ) invited us over and grilled lemon chicken on his cheap charcoal grill. It was wonderful -- I didn't know you could do that with a grill. Over the many years before I
got seriously into grilling after I retired, as I fumbled with my burgers and hotdogs and even chicken, that meal was always the guiding light. Thanks again for another memory, Joan.
 
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