Hot summer days have many good points and one of the best is that they were made for outdoor grilling. And the most fun type of grilling, in my opinion, is slow cooking. Not only does it allow you to drink more beer while you grill longer, which is nice, but it also enables the grillmeister to demonstrate a bit more finesse and technique than a 5-minute steak (not that there’s anything wrong with that either).
One of my favorite semi-slow grilled dishes is classic hickory-smoked chicken. This can be cooked on a standard Webber kettle-type grill (no smoke box required), in about an hour and a half to 2 hours depending on the size of the chicken pieces or whole bird that you’re using. This would be considered a “hot smoking” method and looks like this (this pic was taken closer to the end than the beginning FYI. And yes, that is a kielbasa and yes, I am happy to see you!):
You can see that we’re banking the charcoal to one side and the chicken and kielbasa is actually placed over the area of the grill without the coals, the cool side, so as to receive indirect heat. We don’t have to sear the chicken first with this recipe–it’ll cook just fine anyway with a delicious caramalized skin.
So here’s how we do:
The chicken should always be well marinated in a quality BBQ sauce like Bullseye or Stubbs (both contain no high fructose corn syrup). You can add a little tobasco to the marinade if you like but generally speaking, good BBQ sauce already has plenty of flavor.
After the coals are hot you throw a pre-soaked piece of hickory on ’em, replace the top grate and arrange the chicken to be in that cooler area. (Hickory and other wood chunks & chips can be bought at Home Depot & Lowes) Then cover up your grill, crack a beer and let the oven-like heat and sweet hickory smoke do the work.
Try to resist the temptation to peek too often by lifting up the grill lid, as this releases both desirable heat and moisture. Instead, control air flow to the coals by both the top and underneath vents of the grill–if both are a little open, that will keep a nice upflow of oxygen on the coals and keep them up to temp. You’ll see a gentle stream of smoke emanating from your grill telling you that the wood is doing its good work.
Always have a meat thermometer handy and take the chicken’s temperature (being sure not to touch bone or grill) after a relatively long initial interval. Something like an hour after you first put the meat on will give you an idea of how things are progressing. Obviously, keep in mind that different sized pieces will cook at different temps so check them all to see where they’re at. When any given piece of chicken hits 165F, you can remove it to let it rest on a platter loosely covered with foil. If it’s a little over, it’s not the end of the word but don’t take it off below that.
Put some extra BBQ sauce in an ovenproof container like a Le Cruset ramekin and place it on the grill about a half hour before you think the chicken will be done to infuse it with extra smoke flavor. Have the little lady make some slaw & cornbread to accompany it and voila, you’ve got yourself some sweet, sweet BBQ chicken, my friends.
Serve with a quality craft beer or a crisp, flavorful riesling and enjoy!