http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/the-ultimate-barbecued-chicken-recipe/index.html
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| This is not a picture of chicken. |
This isn't a difficult recipe, it's just involved with more steps than you'd think are neccessary to make bbq chicken. In the past I put some sauce on the chicken and put it on the grill. 20 minutes later, I had bbq chicken. Was it good? Probably but I didn't know what I was missing.
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| Most of the ingredients. Pretty crappy picture since you can't read the labels and it's a bit blurry. Unfortunately it's the only one I took so you'll have to deal or just don't look at it. I really don't care either way. |
First step in this multi-step process is to make the brine for the chicken to soak in. It's similar to marinating where you put together some liquid stuff and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours or more. "Brining foods in a saltwater mixture before you cook them adds flavor, tenderness, and reduces cooking times." - About.com
Is that the correct way to quote other sources in a blog? I don't want to be accused of blog plaguerism and since I have more than 10 followers it's quite a possibility.
Anywho, back to the brine at hand.
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| Water, Kosher Salt (must be blessed by a Rabbi), brown sugar, thyme, and garlic. Make sure the chicken is completely covered and ALSO make sure that the ziploc bags are sealed well. |
Before going any further I'd like to mention that I am using legs, thighs, and breasts, all on the bone. The recipe calls for leg quarters which is the leg attached to the thigh but since I already had a package of legs in the freezer I decided to go this route. So you can use any type of chicken you want, as long as it's still on the bone. Don't like eating chicken on a bone? Have your mother take it off the bone for you when it's done cooking.
While the chicken is getting it's brine on, you can make the sauce. Step one is to wrap a piece of bacon around thyme and tie it with kitchen twine. 1. I don't have any kitchen twine and 2. I used turkey bacon due to religious dietary restrctions of my guests. It was hard, since I love the bacon, but I also love my guests so I decided to make the sacrifice. No need to start any holy wars over a slice of tasty pork goodness.....mmmmm........salt cured.......mmmmmmm..... in a blend of spices and aged for perfect taste.......
Bacon Break!
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| Thats how I'm serving gravy next thanksgiving. |
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| Is this real?! |
| Gross, funny, weird, sexy? |
| The Bacon Explosion. I need to make this. If you are not familiar with the BE check it out here. |
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| It's a BA-K 47! Perfect for those long nights in the jungle when your fighting the enemies and get hungry! |
Ok, that's enough bacon....for now.
Back to the recipe. So I used turkey bacon which works well enough.
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| Turkey bacon rolled around the thyme. It was a good thyme. |
Cook this in a medium size pot or saucepan until the "bacon" gets crispy and then add the onions, garlic and cook on low for about 5 minutes. Then add the rest of the ingredients and cook the sauce on low for 20 minutes. I cooked mine a bit longer,but just make sure the heat is low enough as not to burn the sauce.
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| Sauce will look like this, unless you use bacon and then it might look different. I don't know, I didn't use bacon. |
So you got the sauce done, the chicken is brining and now it's time to either sit back and relax until 2 hours is up, or make some side dishes since you probably want to have something with the chicken. I decided on tater salad, grilled asparagus and grilled corn. I made the tater salad before starting this process, since I wanted to give it time to cool. Loosely based on a tyler florence recipe but not close enoyugh to take credit as one of my 100 recipes. If you're interested check it out here.
Well now it's probably been at least two hours so get the grill going cause we're all getting hungry. If you are a poor soul that has no grill you can use a grill pan on the stove. And if you don't have a grill or a grill pan then lord have mercy on your soul.
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| The Weber Q300! A fine specimen and highly recommended outdoor cooking device. Cast iron cooking grates, two stainless-steel burners at a combined 21,700 BTU per hour and 393 sq inches of cooking heaven. (Note : Weber has not endorsed this blog, but if they'd like to I am open to receiving free products) |
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| Cook for about 10 minutes (5 on each side) or long enough to get some nice grill marks. |
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| Close up of the image above in case you wanted to see it closer. I did. |
After the chicken has grilled up, you transfer it to a baking sheet and cook for 15 minutes at 375 in the oven. Then cover the pieces with your homemade sauce and cook for another 20-25 minutes in the oven. You can baste the chicken with more sauce during the final cooking stages but at this point they looked to be doing just fine on their own.
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| The Chicken is in the Oven! |
And that does it friends! You have now made Tyler's Ultimate BBQ Chicken or at least read the blog on how I did it. This was probably the best bbq chicken I've made and had. No jokes about it. This is some fine tasting chickity chicken! Tangy sweet sauce with a juicy flavorful bird. Doesn't get much better than this.
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| The finished product! |
As I said before I paired it with tater salad, grilled asparagus and corn.
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| Summer on a plate! |
and a happy baby who ate the chicken faster than I could get it to her tray.
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And being Easter Sunday we ended the meal with an apple pie topped with an easter surprise.
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| Finally opened the Peeps! |
Special thanks the my wife, my kiddo, my stepbro, stepsister-inlaw, and step niece. I think I have enough steps to build a staircase.
Next up: Unknown!?!
That "Summer on a plate!" sure does look DELISH! Nicely done, and nice photos!
ReplyDeleteP.S. The "happy baby...." looks delightful as well!