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

[Grant Cunningham]

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?

 

[Tony-Chicago]

Growing up it was grilled with bbq sauce either on the whole time or added halfway through.
Fast forward out of the dark ages, bbq chicken is so much better.

 

[Brett-EDH]

Jerk chicken, cooked over coals. I could live on this kind of chicken.

This place especially: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaur...Jack_s_Shack-Grand_Turk_Turks_and_Caicos.html

After that, dry rubbed yardbird cooked indirect on the E6 at around 400°F. My own dry rub is my goto.

If you’re saucing it, I prefer a vinegar to light sweet flavor profile. I cannot stand a sweet BBQ sauce slathered bird.

 

[Tony-Chicago]

So true.
And how tastes change.
It used to be bbq sauce was de rigueur even on beef. Bbf beefs were kinda tasty.
And the sauces were horrible. Just sugar and red dye. I won't name the popular one back then, cause they do not deserve, but maybe you remember that moping @#$%.

 

[Brett-EDH]

So true.
And how tastes change.
It used to be bbq sauce was de rigueur even on beef. Bbf beefs were kinda tasty.
And the sauces were horrible. Just sugar and red dye. I won't name the popular one back then, cause they do not deserve, but maybe you remember that moping @#$%.

Tony Romas? Was funking gross.

We’ve so moved off of sweet food. I can’t even stand Costco’s new apple pie. They ruined it when they ditched the lattice version for the covered one. The filling is like canned k-rap now. Sweet and flavorless. At least my middle line appreciates me not buying it.

 

[Andy Linn]

I'll take salt, pepper and ground toasted pepper rub. Cooked hot and fast with Alabama white sauce please. Brined overnight with added bourbon. Halved.

 

[MichaelLC]

Grilled chicken would be plain or maybe a light dry rub; but flavor should be the chicken and the grill.

BBQ chicken is the same but with BBQ sauce brushed over it so it's cooked on.

 

[ChuckH]

My favorite way for chicken, in fact about the only way I will eat it is spatchcocked, smoked with hickory, finished off at a higher heat, 350-375 or so than slathered in Alabama white sauce. Oh sooooo good.

 

[Bob Bailey]

This past Summer, I tried some thighs and leg quarters on the Santa Maria, over an open lump charcoal fire, with SPOG, and served it with Carolina Mustard Sauce (Recipe attached). It quickly became our favorite grilled chicken. Spatchcocked is great done that way too. Before that it was Lowry's Seasoned Salt and black pepper, cooked at 300 to 325 on the pellet pooper, usually spatchcocked.

 

[Lew Newby]

Since I got my Smokefire I've done a lot more chicken. The method I settled on is to Spatchcock the bird, dry brine for about 20 hours, then rub it with butter I've mixed with a rub. I cook it at 400, Pecan and Cherry pellets, get bite through skin, enough smoke, and juicy meat. No sauce. The family likes it that way so I'm sticking with that.

 

[Tony-Chicago]

Before tony romas was known. Open pit. The worst stuff.

 

[ChuckO]

In all my travels I've only been to two Chicken BBQ joints I'd recommend:

1) Party Fowl in Nashville TN

Party Fowl

Nashville Hot Chicken, local brews, Boozy Slushies, and Brunch -- Come see what Party Fowl is all about!

partyfowl.com

2) Scotchies (Ocho Rios, Jamaica)
no known website

However I've yet to find anyplace that makes better chicken than my own BBQ

https://imgur.com/qB6g3EC

 

[Matthew Turner]

Before tony romas was known. Open pit. The worst stuff.

I love Open Pit. To me, it's the taste of summers past. BBQ chicken growing up was a bone-in skin-on chicken breast on the grill. My father would sauce with Open Pit right before the breasts came off the grill. As the breasts rested, the sauce would mix with the juices of the chicken and the poultry season my mother always bought at the local butcher. Those juices were the condiment for the entire meal; usually potatoes au gratin and green beans from some roadside stand. It was delightful then and still is now.

My BBQ chicken is not what my father made. I spatchcock the bird and season with whatever savory BBQ rub I'm using at the time. I cook indirect at about 325° on the kettle. My wife and I eat as much as we can and then pull the rest. It usually becomes sandwiches or enchiladas. The carcass becomes stock.

In 1998, I went with a church group to do humanitarian work in Jamaica. The jerk chicken served at the roadside stands is the greatest BBQ chicken I've ever had. It is almost impossible to replicate stateside. Chicken marinaded in fresh jerk spices (allspice, scotch bonnet, thyme, etc.) and grilled directly on smoldering green pimento and covered with corrugated aluminum until cooked, then hacked into pieces with a cleaver is next level BBQ. I've been back to Jamaica as a tourist since and I haven't found anything as good as that roadside stand in the mountains outside of Montego Bay. If your all-inclusive resort serves you jerk chicken, don't even bother.

 

[Brett-EDH]

In all my travels I've only been to two Chicken BBQ joints I'd recommend:

1) Party Fowl in Nashville TN

Party Fowl

Nashville Hot Chicken, local brews, Boozy Slushies, and Brunch -- Come see what Party Fowl is all about!

partyfowl.com

2) Scotchies (Ocho Rios, Jamaica)
no known website

However I've yet to find anyplace that makes better chicken than my own BBQ

https://imgur.com/qB6g3EC

Yea, but what’s on your chicken?

 

[Brett-EDH]

I love Open Pit. To me, it's the taste of summers past. BBQ chicken growing up was a bone-in skin-on chicken breast on the grill. My father would sauce with Open Pit right before the breasts came off the grill. As the breasts rested, the sauce would mix with the juices of the chicken and the poultry season my mother always bought at the local butcher. Those juices were the condiment for the entire meal; usually potatoes au gratin and green beans from some roadside stand. It was delightful then and still is now.

My BBQ chicken is not what my father made. I spatchcock the bird and season with whatever savory BBQ rub I'm using at the time. I cook indirect at about 325° on the kettle. My wife and I eat as much as we can and then pull the rest. It usually becomes sandwiches or enchiladas. The carcass becomes stock.

In 1998, I went with a church group to do humanitarian work in Jamaica. The jerk chicken served at the roadside stands is the greatest BBQ chicken I've ever had. It is almost impossible to replicate stateside. Chicken marinaded in fresh jerk spices (allspice, scotch bonnet, thyme, etc.) and grilled directly on smoldering green pimento and covered with corrugated aluminum until cooked, then hacked into pieces with a cleaver is next level BBQ. I've been back to Jamaica as a tourist since and I haven't found anything as good as that roadside stand in the mountains outside of Montego Bay. If your all-inclusive resort serves you jerk chicken, don't even bother.

Here’s a very close version to what you speak of:

Spicy Grilled Jerk Chicken Recipe

To make spicy Jamaican-style jerk chicken, marinate the bird, then smoke it low and slow on the grill.

www.seriouseats.com

 

[Larry D.]

I'm lazy, I admit it. Since wings are still too expensive I generally cook drumsticks on the kettle, indirect between two baskets of charcoal, hanging in a rack. A few small pieces of wood (usually maple twigs picked up under the backyard tree) add a touch of smoke.With the vents fully open I get a crispy skin. For bbq chicken they get a couple of coats of Buffalo wing sauce the last 10 minutes or so.

Or, my home-made sauce that looks sweet but is vinegar based. It is actually my rib sauce, but we like it on chicken, too.

 

[Dustin Dorsey]

Growing up, barbecued chicken was just grilled chicken with burned barbecue sauce all over it. I like to cook it on my offset with slightly higher heat than normal or on my WSM with no water pan over the coals like Chris's method. I like it with Alabama white sauce, but sometimes I like it with a mop sauce like Snow's.

 

[Grant Cunningham]

Growing up, barbecued chicken was just grilled chicken with burned barbecue sauce all over it.

I remember eating chicken just like that! It was the '60s, and we had one of those round, shallow "pan" type BBQ grills (the kind with the little hood that covered half of the grill.) Burnt chicken and "hockey puck" burgers were the usual end product. I even remember the shape of the bottle the BBQ sauce came in; don't remember the brand, but I do recall the bottle. And don't forget the charcoal lighting fluid — lots and lots of it!

Eventually my Dad learned about rubs and how to cook chicken properly on an open pit, but it took him a while to get there.

 

[Matthew Turner]

Here’s a very close version to what you speak of:

Spicy Grilled Jerk Chicken Recipe

To make spicy Jamaican-style jerk chicken, marinate the bird, then smoke it low and slow on the grill.

www.seriouseats.com

I'll definitely give this a try after this Wisconsin winter is over. I'm skeptical that dried bay leaves can replicate the smoky smoldering of green pimento but I'm sure it won't suck. I'll start sharpening my cleaver so I can chop the bird into bite-size, bone-on pieces.

 

[Brett-EDH]

I'll definitely give this a try after this Wisconsin winter is over. I'm skeptical that dried bay leaves can replicate the smoky smoldering of green pimento but I'm sure it won't suck. I'll start sharpening my cleaver so I can chop the bird into bite-size, bone-on pieces.

the recipe calls for water soaking the bay leaves and whole allspice and then cooking them after they've been hydrated. i have a yardbird calling me in my fridge. gonna have to do this too, with habaneros, not scotchies.