Perfect Barbecue Chicken

Cooking with Indirect Heat

The best way to make great barbecue chicken on the grill is to use indirect heat. Learning to use indirect heat is really just learning to control the temperature of your grill. Think of your grill as an oven. I cook on a gas grill but you can easily adapt this to charcoal. Once you learn to cook with indirect heat you’ll love it!

To cook over indirect heat, you heat one side of the grill and use the other side of the grill for the food. You place the chicken on the flameless side,  close the cover and you let the heat and smoke cook the food. While direct heat is great for grilling steaks, hamburgers and hot dogs, when it comes to barbecue chicken, indirect heat is the solution to perfectly cooked, moist and delicious chicken.

Let’s get started!

You need two things to cook using the indirect heat method on a gas grill: (1) more than one burner and (2) a cover for the grill.( ....and chicken, of course).

Turn all the burners of the grill on high, close the cover and let the grill get very hot.

Oil the grill so the chicken won’t stick.

Turn the burner(s) on one side of the grill completely off. Set the burner(s) on the other side to medium high.
(You are looking for a grill temperature of about 300-325 degrees.)

Place the seasoned chicken skin side up on the cooler side of the grill, close the cover and let cook for about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes turn the chicken over and continue to cook for another 20 minutes. (Do this for as long as it takes, you might need another 20 minutes depending upon the size of your chicken and the temperature of the grill)

You should have a beautiful crisped skin on your chicken at this point.

With the chicken still on the cooler side of the grill raise the temperature a little and liberally apply sauce to both sides of the chicken basting a few times  and let cook until your sauce develops a beautiful caramelization ( 15 minutes or so) Remove from the heat and let the chicken rest for ten minutes. Serve with additional sauce on the side.


Your chicken is perfectly cooked. Moist, delicious, sticky beautiful barbecued chicken!

 Finger lickin good.

adapted from everyday food

Vegetable oil, for grates
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
Chicken (about 3 pounds)
Simple Barbecue Sauce




Directions

Prepare the grill as described above. In a small bowl, combine chili powder, 1 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper; sprinkle over chicken. Reserve  at least 1 cup barbecue sauce in a bowl for serving.( I had leftovers) Keep remaining sauce in another bowl for basting.

Grill chicken, as descibed above and serve with  additional sauce on the side.



Sauce

Makes 3 1/2 Cups


1 bottle (24 ounces) ketchup (about 3 cups)

1 cup cider vinegar

1/2 cup unsulfured molasses

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 cup water

1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon paprika

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon mustard powder

1 tablespoon  garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4  teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium, and simmer until sauce is thickened and reduced by a third, about 30 minutes. Let cool to room temperature before using. (To store, refrigerate, up to 2 weeks.)