BBQ Chicken
- Total Time
- 45 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:6 to 8 servings
- 1cup barbecue sauce (see recipe)
- 6 to 8chicken legs (drumsticks and thighs) skin-on, bone-in, about 3½ to 4 pounds
- Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
533 calories; 35 grams fat; 10 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 15 grams monounsaturated fat; 7 grams polyunsaturated fat; 15 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 12 grams sugars; 36 grams protein; 783 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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- Step 1
Build a fire in your grill, leaving one side free of coals. When coals are covered with gray ash and the temperature is medium (you can hold your hand 5 inches above the coals for 5 to 7 seconds), you are ready to cook. (For a gas grill, turn one of the burners down to low or off, lower cover and heat for 15 minutes.)
- Step 2
Meanwhile, combine barbecue sauce with 1 cup water and stir to combine. Set aside.
- Step 3
Sprinkle the chicken pieces generously with salt and pepper, then put them on the grill directly over the coals and cook for about 15 minutes, turning once every 5 minutes or so, and brushing with the thinned barbecue sauce. When the chicken skin starts to crisp and darken, move the pieces to the cooler side of the grill and let them cook for 15 to 20 minutes more, or until a peek inside shows that the meat no longer has any red at the center.
- Step 4
Move the chicken back onto the hot side of the grill and baste with sauce again, turning the meat a few times. Remove to a warmed platter and serve.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
barry
you forgot a most important step, maybe the most important: salt the chicken the day before.
and another important point: it's the 21st century: get an instant-read thermometer. when breast meat is 160-165F, it's perfect; thigh meat should be 185-205F.
breezyvalley
Every recipe should start with "don't get drunk" lol
William Shaw
Brining helps poultry and pork. Just don't get drunk, as I have been known to do, and forget to take the meat out of the salt. In that case, don't try to salvage. It is not much good at that point. Throw the meat away and start anew.
This is apropos of nothing, but the NYT's cuisine-team is brilliant. I really do pay attention in my few moments of lucidity.
Eric
I would highly recommend using more of a bbq based spice rub instead of salt of pepper. It adds a better base layer of flavor other than just the sauce. Otherwise you are relying solely on the sauce to provide the flavor. Paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, a bit of sugar (brown), salt and pepper, and cayenne to your taste. If I up the cayenne then I go to a sweeter sauce on the baste to balance. Just my two cents
Harmon A. Cornpone
Oh my! And the bones are a choking hazard so we better get rid of those as well! and grilled meat is linked with carcinogens so its better to steam the de-boned meat! but eating meat is linked to cancer so it might be better to throw the whole chicken away and go buy some tofu! but then I might live longer which increases my chances of dying! What is a person to do!
Framk
Legs and thighs cook best first browned over direct heat, than cooked SLOWLY over indirect low heat for 45 minutes
Dinosaur is my BBQ sauce of choice.
Jack
Mr Sifton,
You are treading the slippery slope of BBQ! Only in BBQ can you get 5 Star ratings and hundreds of scathing comments. You sir are a brave man. By the way, your recipe was very helpful and my chicken came out exactly as I had hoped!
Alan Greenberg
I have found that if you pre-cook the chicken in the oven for 30 minutes at 350F you get less flare ups and burning and the chicken cooks more evenly. Finish on the grill for that wonderful smoky taste.
Stacy
For gas grill, turn one of the burners to high and one or two down to low or off, lower cover and heat 15 minutes.
Salt and pepper chicken: bone-in, skin-on, white meat and dark
Grill over hottest part of the grill, turning every few minutes to develop a crust, about 15 minutes
Move to cool side and cook until they are juicy, crisp and cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes more
Apply thinned barbecue sauce when you turn chicken pieces, allowing it to reduce on the chicken rather than burn.
jon
Whether I'm bbqing over coals or gas, I'll still add a chunk of wood, usually apple because while i'm cooking the meat indirectly I can add a bit of smoke flavor at the same time.
I too start indirect but never add bbq sauce until the skin crisps up toward the end of the cook, then i'll brush...flip..brush...flip until I get good caramelization.
Amber
Barbecued chicken works great if you do it in a sous-vide bath first to get the interior to a safe eating temperature, then finish it on the grill. We do chicken thighs this way. You can put marinade in the pouch before the chicken goes into the sous vide bath. Result is dark meat chicken that is not red at the bone, and is still moist and not burned on the outside.
Komikass
OMG, he is brushing the RAW chicken with the sauce and putting the contaminated brush back in the bowl???? My friend Sal Minella loves this technique.
Akua Filardo
Find a BBQ chicken rub recipe (see below) to use rather then just "sprinkling the chicken with salt and pepper". The chicken will turn out much more flavorful. Most of the items rub you will find are already in your kitchen. 1/4 cups Brown Sugar. 1 - 3 tablespoons Freshly Ground Black Pepper 2 1/2 tablespoons Chili Powder 2 1/2 tablespoons Kosher Salt 1 tablespoon Cumin 1 1/2 teaspoons Regular or Smoked Paprika 1 1/2 teaspoon Garlic
monty
I prefer a marinade of minced garlic, chopped basil and chopped mint with some lemon juice and enough olive oil to make a blend with the lemon juice. Good for a 4 hrs. marinade or overnight.
I adjust the liquid of lemon juice to olive oil to match up with the amount of meat.
Marie
Is the lid off, the entire time?
Heidi
Just made per instructions. Yummy, yummy and yummy.
Jennifer Kirkgaard
I would have liked a punchier bbq sauce and not so watered down but still a good recipe.
Holly
followed the suggestion of others and dry rubbed, grilled briefly on the hot side (without sauce), then basted/turned on the side without the burner on and finished briefly on the flame. Came out juicy and tender and perfectly cooked.
Jay
Great way to BBQ chicken without burning, perfectly cooked when done (instant read thermometer). One improvement would be rubbing beforehand with seasoning rub for more flavor. I also didn’t dilute 1:1 with water. Probably closer to 2:1 sauce: water.
johnnie j
I would NOT dilute the homemade bbq sauce 1:1, it’s just too thin and doesn’t flavorize enough. Next time I’m going 1:1/2. I don’t agree with the instant read thermometer limit of 185 for thighs- I still stick with take out temp of 160 for all chicken parts
Bill
Though everybody else has something that they'd rather do...and their ideas are probably great...this recipe has been my go-to grilling recipe for over 5 years. It's incredibly simple and it tastes good. The constant "real-time" is really effective in keeping the meat moist. For this reason alone, I'd recommend the recipe. I would say - as others have - that you probably be a little more careful when cooking over coal (does anyone but me even do that anymore?!) than the recipe implies.
LindaC
I've made this version of grilled chicken twice, and each time it tasted wonderful. Diluting the barbecue sauce with water is an excellent suggestion, as it makes it less likely to burn and the chicken takes on the flavor of the sauce since it is turned several times. This is a keeper.
NG
I read the reviews and used a dry rub. The recommended sauce was good yet the chicken itself didn't have a lot of flavor. It was juicy and grilled, yet most of the flavor was on the surface, not in the meat itself. Next time, I would try brining.
Jonathan French, Camano Island
I make my own sauce - crushed over-ripened tomatoes, garlic, sauteed onion, curry powder, Worcestershire sauce, molasses, freshly ground red chili, and dark beer. It simmers all day and I keep it thin, like Sam says. But I don't brush the sauce on the chicken; I dip the chicken repeatedly into the sauce for coat after coat. I make more sauce than needed, so that by the end of the day I have a sublime charcoal-infused and thickened sauce that cannot be bought for love nor money.
Cyd
This was a very fun recipe! We liked the basting, and the homemade sauce was so much better than anything you buy in the store. Very tasty! Great grilling instructions.
JPGreen
I've made this recipe several times - once was for a large party at our house in Oregon. The comments were all of the nature of "this is the best barbecued chicken I've ever had." Make sure to use the recommended BBQ sauce - it's a winner, as well.
Mike
A couple of food safety items: Didn't we switch from cooking by time to cooking by temperature about 3 decades ago? Also, gloves should be used when handling raw chicken. Hands should be washed frequently too. Lastly, after watering down the sauce, pour it into a squeeze bottle like you'd use with catsup. Apply sauce by squeezing a small amount on the chicken pieces, then brush them. This way you don't contaminate the sauce as someone else mentioned.
Mike Stephany
Rather than water, I regularly use bourbon with the thick sauce! Much richer taste…
Josh
The suggestions to do a salt, brown sugar, etc. rub the day before, doing a low and slow with wood chunk on charcoal, and basting with the BBQ at the end we’re spot on.
ray
I thin my BBQ sauce with a shot of tequila before I paint it on anything !
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