Perfect Charcoal Grilled Chicken

Grilling individual pieces of chicken to perfection, over an open flame, isn't easy.  It LOOKS easy, but it's tricky!  Think to yourself, "How many pieces of BBQ chicken have I eaten where the cook was hiding the burnt skin with extra BBQ Sauce?"  We've all been there...

Great grilled chicken doesn't have to be hard.  I have tricks to get your bird perfectly seasoned and cooked to perfection!

You Will Need:

• "Instant Read" probe thermometer
• Anywhere from 8 to 14 pieces of Chicken
• Olive Oil
• Dry Rub: equal parts of each, mixed, and put into a shaker:
• Kosher Salt
• Ground Pepper
• Paprika
• Chili Powder
• Brown Sugar
• Garlic Powder

The first step is easy.  Rinse your chicken with cold water, and pat each piece dry with a paper towel, then dump them all into a large bowl.  Wash both of your hands (I'm not kidding, it's important), and make a mental note to make your dominant hand your "chicken hand" and the other hand your "clean hand." 

Now, use your CLEAN hand and grab a bottle of olive oil.  Pour some over the chicken, and use your Chicken Hand to spread and mix the olive oil all over the chicken pieces.  You'll be tempted to use both hands, but do NOT!  If you do, you'll just cross-contaminate the rest of your chicken and you'll be left to sanitize everything or to just get sick... neither of which are any fun.  When all of the chicken is lubricated, use your clean hand to shake the dry rub over the chicken and use your chicken hand to turn and mix all of the pieces until everything is coated evenly and fully.

Now, use your clean hand to get a large zip-top bag.  Dump all of the pieces into the bag with your chicken hand, squeeze as much of the air out as possible and seal it up.  Place the bag onto the counter with your clean hand and wash your hands, the bowl, the counter top, and anything else that you accidentally touched with your chicken hand!  THEN it will be safe for you to grab the bag and park it in your refrigerator to marinate overnight, or for at least 4 hours.

Ok, when it's time to cook, or when you're just so hungry that you can't leave the chicken in the fridge for one more minute, take the bag of chicken out, and leave it on the counter while you go build a fire.  You want to get enough charcoal going to fill half of your grill space.  Slice the grate to the opposite side of the fire.  NOTICE, I shoved all of my coals to the side with the air intake!  You want the coals to stay HOT!  Close the lid and let the interior pre-heat for about 20 minutes.

Now get your bag o' chicken and some tongs.  Head out to the grill, open the lid, and lay the pieces out on the COOL side of the grate.  Breasts should go "bone side down."  Now, close the lid again and walk away for ten minutes.  What you have going here is basically an oven.  You're "baking" the chicken but instead of an electric heating element, you're using charcoal.  Note the picture, it is no coincidence that I have the bigger pieces closer to the fire, and the smaller pieces a bit further away... After ten minutes, open the lid, flip the chicken over, close the lid, and walk away again, for another ten minutes.

When the chicken has had a chance to bake for 20 minutes, it should be well on its way to being done.  Take its temperature with the probe and remember my mantra, "Chicken is done at 165 degrees; it begins its journey to Burnland at 166!"  With this in mind, slide the pieces directly over the fire.  Do NOT walk away anymore!  Keep an eye on them, turn them over frequently so the skin doesn't burn, and take their temps once in awhile.

Your goal here is fairly simple.  You want to develop a nice amber crust on the chicken skin but you don't want it to turn black.  You also want each piece to match 165 degrees before you remove it from the fire.  So, pay attention to your hot spots, your probe, and above all, your NOSE!  Get your face over the grill, close your eyes, concentrate, and smell it.  You should smell roasting spices, chicken, and smoke,  You should sense some chili heat and steam.  You should NOT smell burning sugar or burnt chicken!  This is best accomplished with tongs in one hand and a cold beer in the other.. move the pieces that are nearly done to the cold spots and keep the bigger pieces close enough to the fire to cook, but far enough away not to burn.  You got this!!  whatever you do, resist the temptation to slather everything with BBQ sauce until maybe the very end.  Sauce has sugar, sugar burns, and you want the chicken skin to be exposed to the fire so it will get crispy!

In the end, your patience and skill will be rewarded with juicy chicken that is flavorful, and with skin that is crispy and easy to bite through!  Garnish with some of your favorite BBQ sauce that's been warmed on the stove or on the grill.

This happens to be my wife's favorite dish, out of everything I've ever cooked at the house; so we have it more often than we probably should, but it's so damn good.... Don't be afraid to practice!