- 3 months ago
Chef and pitmaster Matt Abdoo joins Epicurious to break down everything you need to know about grilling perfect BBQ chicken. Learn how to make a homemade BBQ rub and how to get juicy chicken with crispy skin through zone cooking to level up your grilling game this summer.
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00:00I'm Matt Abdu, chef and pit master, and today we're firing up the grills to show you an incredibly easy
00:05take on grilled barbecue chicken.
00:07We're going to show you all those amazing flavors as we finish this chicken the entire way on the grill.
00:12This is Grilling 101.
00:17This is not to be confused with the low and slow verb of barbecue, of cooking with wood, cooking with
00:23smoke, and making barbecue chicken.
00:25We are taking all the iconic seasonings and flavors of the rubs and sauces and putting it on our chicken
00:30and finishing it entirely on the grill.
00:32We're going to be showing you how to cook breasts, legs, and thighs, skin on and bone in.
00:37Now, if you're doing it at home and you want to use boneless product, by all means, you absolutely can.
00:42The processes are still going to stay more or less the same, but I love cooking with the skin and
00:46the bone on because I just feel it gives so much more flavor.
00:48Who doesn't like crispy skin? And anytime you're cooking on anything on the bone, it's always going to have more
00:53flavor within it.
00:54Every great barbecue chicken starts with a great barbecue rub.
00:57You probably already have all these ingredients in your pantry.
01:00I love making it in a food safe container like this with a lid.
01:04First is light brown sugar. Next, we have some granulated sugar.
01:08My barbecue seasoning has a good amount of sugar in it.
01:10Now comes our spices. Some sweet paprika.
01:13You can make this smoked paprika if you wanted to add a little bit more smoky flavor to it.
01:17Some chili powder. Next, we've got some ground black pepper.
01:20Some kosher salt. Again, I like kosher salt here.
01:23If you use table salt, it could be too fine. Some granulated garlic.
01:27I like granulated instead of powder. Again, we're just looking at coarser textures.
01:31But if all you have at home is powder, you certainly can use that.
01:34Some granulated onion. Next, coming in with our green herbs.
01:37I have some dried thyme. I'm using dry because it's a dry rub.
01:41This is not one of those times where you can swap fresh for it because we're making this a shelf
01:45-stable rub.
01:46Some dried oregano. Some ground cumin.
01:49And last but not least, some ground fennel seed.
01:52So now that everything's together in our container, we're going to put on our lid and give it a good
01:56shake.
02:00Now let's give it a taste.
02:04Perfect. Sweet, salty, herbaceous. All those amazing spices in it. Delicious on chicken, pork, ribs, fish, you name it.
02:14It's also amazing to take it and shake it on your favorite potato chip or even microwave popcorn.
02:18Now it's time to season up our chicken.
02:20But first things first, what I like to do is brush the chicken with a little bit of oil.
02:24It's going to help the chicken release from the grill when we start cooking it.
02:28Anything that's got a little bit of oil on it is going to help be a little bit more nonstick.
02:31And it's also going to be great for that barbecue seasoning to really adhere well to that chicken skin.
02:36We're just going to flip and do the same on the bottom side.
02:39I'm using olive oil because I'm partial to olive oil.
02:42But if you don't have olive oil at home, you can certainly use a vegetable oil.
02:45All we're looking for is a nice neutral oil.
02:47One of the biggest distinctions between a pro chef and a home cook is we like to season our foods
02:51aggressively.
02:52We want to go heavy because we want to really develop all that amazing flavor that's in that barbecue rub.
02:57We're going to give it a flip and just continue seasoning the top sides.
03:00We want to season from up high. We don't want to get too close.
03:03We want it to evenly rain down onto that meat, that chicken, whatever it is that we're seasoning.
03:08Now that the chicken is seasoned, we're going to let it sit at room temperature with the seasoning on it
03:11for about 10 to 15 minutes.
03:13And what you're going to notice in that time, the sugars and the salts are going to mix with the
03:17natural moistures in that chicken.
03:18And they're almost going to start to form a beautiful glaze on the outside of this chicken before we bring
03:22it to the grill.
03:25Super important. We need to clean our grill before we start cooking.
03:29There are two types of grill brushes that are on the market.
03:32One is a cold grill brush style, which you can notice by the red bristles.
03:36They're typically made out of some form of like plastic. These are used for cleaning the grill when it's cold.
03:41You do not want to use this grill brush when the grill is hot. The hot grill will melt these
03:45bristles.
03:46And this is a style of a hot grill brush that has the wire metal bristles on it.
03:49These are great to use when the grill is nice and hot to really scrape off any of those bits
03:53of carbon or burnt on bits that are on the grill grates.
03:56And sometimes if you're cooking multiple cooks, make sure in between each protein you're putting on there, we're cleaning the
04:01grill so it's starting off like new.
04:02Now guys, when we're preheating the grill, what I like to do, and I'm going to teach you a phrase.
04:06It's called zone cooking, meaning that we're going to set one side of the grill to medium, medium high heat
04:11and the other side set to low.
04:13What we want is to create that high heat on one side of the grill to start charring up and
04:17rendering out that skin on the chicken.
04:18And then when it comes time to flip, we want it to finish nice and low and slow with the
04:22skin side up on the cooler side of the grill.
04:24It's going to give us a lot more control and also make a beautiful, more juicy finished product.
04:29The first thing we need to do is preheat it.
04:31I can see a flame coming out, hold it for a few seconds.
04:34Then we're just going to turn this burner onto medium heat.
04:38Same with this burner, turn it down to medium.
04:41And I'm going to set these two knobs here to a lower temperature.
04:45While the grill is heating up and now that the burners are lit, we're going to close our lid and
04:49let those grill grates get hot.
04:53Our chicken's been seasoned, our grill is hot.
04:56You see how the chicken kind of gets that natural glistening, like the sugars and the salts and that rub
05:00are starting to dissolve in the natural juices of that chicken.
05:03We're going to take our breasts first, have the right side of the grill set up to high heat.
05:07And I'll put them skin side down.
05:10Hear that sizzle?
05:11That's what we need.
05:12If it's not sizzling, your grill isn't hot enough yet.
05:15Now it's time for the thighs and the legs.
05:18Don't fidget with it, don't move it around.
05:20Let that skin get nice and charred and rendered, and then it'll be ready to flip.
05:23Our chicken's been cooking for about four minutes.
05:25I'm going to take a look to see if it's releasing and it's ready to turn.
05:29No resistance, the chicken picks right up.
05:31And look at that.
05:32The browning and charring of the skin, it looks gorgeous.
05:34So from here we're going to take it, skin side up, and we're going to move it over to the
05:38lower heat side of the grill and let it finish cooking.
05:41It just gives you more control over the food you're making and ultimately will result in a juicier interior.
05:45The thighs are probably, believe it or not, are going to cook the fastest only because they're the smallest.
05:49The chicken breast is probably going to take the longest because it's bigger and it's got that bone on the
05:53backside that's really insulating the meat.
05:55So our skin, they're charred, they're rendered, they're golden brown.
05:59It's time to put them over to the lower heat side of the grill.
06:01We're going to close the lid and we're going to let it finish cooking in that lower temperature, creating almost
06:06like an oven environment over the chicken.
06:08Our chicken's been cooking for about 10 minutes.
06:10Now's a great time to check the internal temperatures to see where we are.
06:12This is such an important tool whenever you're cooking or barbecuing.
06:16We're simply just going to take it, open it up, and we're going to put it into the thickest part
06:20of the meat and try to find the coldest temperature we can find.
06:23The eyes are at 165, the legs are at 168, perfect.
06:27Let's check our breasts.
06:29The breasts are at 155.
06:31So everything is coming along just as I expected.
06:33Now is the perfect time we want to take our barbecue sauce and glaze up that top side of the
06:37chicken.
06:38We don't want to put the barbecue sauce on too soon, guys.
06:40I've seen lots of recipes out there where somebody might be taking chicken, they marinate it in barbecue sauce, and
06:45they put it on the grill, and all that ends up happening is creating a burnt, sugary flare-up of
06:49a mess.
06:50All you need to do is get your favorite barbecue sauce that you know and you love out there, pour
06:54it into a bowl, and use a brush to apply the barbecue sauce to the top side of that chicken.
06:58So we're just going to take our brush, dip it into the barbecue sauce, and just start painting the top
07:03side and every area that's exposed on that chicken.
07:06For this style of barbecue chicken, I like to go pretty heavy-handed because we're only going to be mopping
07:10it once.
07:11The barbecue sauce that you're using, make sure it's one of those that's a little bit thicker.
07:15We don't want something that's a vinegar-based barbecue sauce. It's just not going to stick and it's going to
07:18run off the chicken.
07:19So now we're just going to close the lid. We want to create that oven environment on our grill side,
07:23which is going to start cooking that barbecue sauce without burning it.
07:26It's going to thicken it and make it really nice and sticky and tacky to that chicken.
07:30It's been three and a half minutes since we've closed the lid. Let's take a look.
07:34Check that out. See how that sauce has gotten nice and thick and sticky. It still has that gorgeous shine.
07:40So the last thing to do is take a temperature check. The thigh.
07:45175. Perfect. We have so much more wiggle room on the leg and thighs. Honestly, for me, I think it
07:51eats better when you cook the thigh to about 175.
07:54Leg, same thing. We're at 170. Perfect. Let's check our breasts. Amazing. We're right at 163.
08:02That's going to be great because I'm going to pull it off. We're going to let it rest.
08:04It's going to carry over, cook a few more degrees right to that 165 and that's exactly where we want
08:08it to be.
08:09So now our chicken is perfectly cooked. That sauce is sticky. It's glazed onto it.
08:13Let's move it over to our rack to let it rest. If you cut into it too soon, all that
08:17juice that's on the inside is just going to bleed out onto your plate.
08:20Let it rest for about five minutes. Then it's time to eat.
08:26And there we have it. Check this out. Gorgeous, beautifully cooked, grilled barbecue chicken.
08:32See how that barbecue sauce is nice and sticky. It's on the chicken.
08:36I don't know if you guys at home are salivating as much as I am looking at this chicken, but
08:39it's time to take a bite.
08:41I'm going to take a bite of the thigh. Let's go. Look at that. Just perfectly cooked. That glaze. It's
08:46sticky.
08:47Here we go.
08:50Oh yeah. It's everything you want in barbecue grilled chicken.
08:54Guys, I hope we've taken out a little bit of that mystery behind cooking barbecue chicken.
08:59I hope you're not afraid to do it. Just go after it. Have fun. Do it.
09:02Your friends, family, and loved ones are definitely going to love this recipe.
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