This recipe is from America’s Test Kitchen with a few variations.
I was surprised how good the results were for this chicken and I particularly like it because, unlike a marinade or sauce, there is much less dripping onto the charcoal and therefore less flare-ups.
Ingredients
1 chicken cut up (Save the back, neck, liver and gizzard for a soup base.)
Dry rub ingredients:
6 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoon paprika
2 tablespoon chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Brine
2 quarts cold water
1/2 cup table salt (It needs to dissolve completely hence table salt rather than Kosher salt or any other large crystal salt.)
Directions
Dissolve the salt into the water. I use a whisk for this. Make sure the salt is completely dissolved.
Place the chicken parts into the brine and allow to sit in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes.
In the meantime, blend together all the dry rub ingredients on a plate with either a fork or a dry whisk. (Make sure there is no moisture in the rub blend. That will ball up the mixture and you’ll have a mess…as I learned.)
Make sure the skin of each piece of chicken is covering the part to ensure that the rub covers as much skin as possible.
Roll each chicken piece onto the rub and pat off the excess.
Heat the grill for 15 minutes, scrape off the grill then oil using a tong soaked with cooking oil.
Turn one burner off and place chicken on that burner, close to the active burner.
Cover the grill and allow the chicken to cook for 25 minutes.
Then switch the chicken parts so that the pieces farther from the heat are then close to the hot burner.
Cover and cook for another 25 minutes or until the meat thermometer reads 185 to 190 degrees.
Transfer the chicken pieces to the hot burnerand allow to brown for 5 minutes, continually rotating the parts so they don’t blacken completely.
Take the chicken off the grill, transfer to a plate and cover with foil allowing the chicken to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
I serve with whole carrots that have been oiled and on the grill on the upper level of the grill for about 10 minutes.
Enjoy!
Taylor & Company Cookbook 