Sunday, May 29, 2011

High 'N' Dry Chicken

It's been quite a while since my last post here, mostly due to weather and not being able to do much grilling during the work week. No excuses though, the warm temps are finally here to stay and I have lots of new recipes to try out on My Three Grills! Since I cook mostly for a toddler and wife who can't take the heat I usually have to keep things on the mild side. Sometimes I cook two seperate recipes to accomodate my own fiery needs but that's not always easy. This afternoon I kept things simple with some chicken legs and thighs seasoned with Weber Seasoning Salt and black pepper.


After taking the chicken out of the packaging I let it sit in a container uncovered in the fridge for about 15 minutes. This was to help dry out the skin a little bit due to the packaging liquid. I have heard this also helps with getting crispy skin which was my main goal. Meanwhile I set up the grill for classic indirect grilling and soaked a handful of cherry wood chips. This was also the first opportunity I had to use my new leg and wing rack. The rack itself is tall enough so the chicken legs hang slightly above the grill grate and luckily my Weber top just barely fit. So for this setup I used a chimney full of charcoal on one side and an aluminum foil drip pan on the other.


I kept the seasonings real simple for this meal, black pepper and Weber seasoning salt applied after a thin coat of canola oil was brushed on.



The legs hung from the rack while the thighs went directly on the grate.


Added a handful of soaked cherry wood chips and let the smoke do it's thing for a bit.


I checked to see how they were doing after about an hour and half. The drumsticks were definitely done, so were the thighs...guess I should have checked them after an hour! The skin was perfectly browned and crispy, exactly what I was going for. I quickly put on an application of Sweet Baby Ray's Hickory & Brown Sugar barbacue sauce - the ladies' favorite,







This meal turned out pretty good for spur of the moment. The seasonings combined with the indirect heat created a very crisp and flavorful skin which I have had a hard time achieving in the past with my gas grill and smoker. Thanks to the BBQ sauce the dry meat wasn't much of an issue but next time the temp will be taken after an hour on the grill.


I've been listening to this one quite a bit this week so I figured it would be a fitting name for the chicken...Crank it to 11 and fire up the grill!

High N' Dry Chicken

Bone-In Chicken Thighs & Drumsticks
Weber Seasoning Salt to taste
Freshly Ground Black Pepper to taste
Canola Oil
Handful of Soaked Cherry Wood Chips
1 chimney starter of Kingsford Charcoal