Barbecue chicken
Units
Temperature
Servings
Ingredients
Chicken
- 2 whole chickens, about 1.5 kg each, spatchcocked rounded
- 20 g baking powder, rubbed into the skin only; this is what makes it crisp rounded
Rub
- 25 g kosher salt rounded
- 15 g sweet paprika rounded
- 10 g coarse black pepper rounded
- 8 g garlic powder rounded
- 8 g onion powder rounded
- 4 g cayenne rounded
Glaze
- 200 g barbecue sauce, thinned with a splash of cider vinegar so it brushes rather than sits rounded
Method
Method
- Spatchcock the birds. Kitchen shears down each side of the backbone, remove it, press the breastbone flat. The whole point is even thickness, so the breast and the thighs finish closer together.
- Dry the skin and treat it. Pat it thoroughly dry, then rub the baking powder into the skin only, avoiding the flesh. It raises the pH of the skin so it browns faster and crisps rather than turning to rubber. Then the rub over everything.
- Uncovered in the fridge for at least 4 hours, overnight if you can. Dry skin is the entire difference between good barbecue chicken and the disappointing kind.
- Cook hotter than you would a brisket. Settle the smoker at 150°C. Chicken is not a low-and-slow cut: at 110°C the meat is done long before the fat under the skin has rendered, and you get flabby skin over dry meat. Fruit wood or a light hickory.
- Skin side up, breast away from the fire. About 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 45, depending on the bird. Do not open the lid every ten minutes.
- Sauce only at the end. When the breast reads about 70°C, brush the thinned sauce over the skin. Give it 10 to 15 minutes to set, then brush once more. Sauce applied at the start will be carbon by the end, because it is mostly sugar.
- Pull the breast at 74°C and let the thighs go to 80°C if they are lagging. Rest 15 minutes and cut into quarters.
Notes
- Baking powder, not baking soda. Soda in that quantity tastes soapy and metallic. Powder is buffered and does the same job to the skin without the flavour.
- Why hotter. Chicken skin needs to reach a temperature where fat renders and collagen tightens. Barbecue temperatures that suit brisket simply dry chicken out while leaving the skin soft.
- Thighs are the better cut for this if you would rather not deal with a whole bird. Same rub, same temperature, about 45 minutes, and they are far harder to overcook.
- Ahead. Rub and dry-brine a day ahead. The cook itself does not wait well; barbecue chicken is best within the hour.
Ingredient substitutions
- Barbecue sauce. A Kansas City style thick sweet sauce is the default here. The Carolina vinegar sauce on this site works and gives a sharper, less sticky result, and does not need thinning.
- No smoker. A kettle grill set up for indirect heat does this well, and a 180°C oven followed by 3 minutes under the grill gets you crisp skin and no smoke.