Chicken cook for about 14-15 family members on Sunday

[dpearce]

I've got a couple questions for this cook.

The Menu: Chicken Tenderloins (boneless/skinless), Chicken Thighs (bone in/skin on), Chicken Leg Quarters (bone in/skin on), and Chicken Legs (bone in/skin on).

Everything will be dry brined in the fridge overnight (maybe longer for the skin on cuts) and seasoned 4-5 hours before the cook

I'm planning on cooking the tenderloins on the PBC. Since there's no skin to worry about crisping up, I figured that's a good route to go. For the rest, I'm planning on using the Weber Rotisserie. First, I was planning on doing the quarters and thighs, since their the bigger cuts (which I can hold in the oven), then the legs, since I figure those will cook faster.

Couple questions:
1. For the thighs and leg quarters, I'm thinking the Simon and Garfunkle rub, possibly injecting them with unsalted butter and possibly a little (not much!) ground Cayenne. Would Chris Lilly's Alabama white sauce go good with that spice mixture? If not, what do you recommend for a rub? I'm thinking I'll leave the sauce on the side and let people decide for themselves. I've made it before and really like it.

2. For the legs, I'd like a suggestion for a decent rub and a good sauce. Nothing blow-your-mind spicy, but more geared toward "barbequed chicken" and traditional barbeque sauces. A little kick would be nice. Considering injecting with the same mixture as well, so maybe that will do for the spicy part?

3. Tenderloins, same questions apply as number two, but I won't bother injecting them for sure. I'd like a different flavor profile from the legs and since I have *alot* of them, possibly two different flavor profiles.

4. Holding in the oven. I am planning on putting a light coating of oil down in a glass dish, then covering with aluminum foil, on low heat (as low as the oven will go). Should I add a little chicken stock instead of the oil? I don't want to cause the skin to be rubbery or dry out the chicken.

Any suggestions and opinions are welcome!

Edit: Reviewing the Alabama white sauce recipe, I see it already has cayenne in it, so I wouldn't bother using it in an injection.

[SheilaAnn]

1. I think the S&G and the white sauce would be good for the thighs. Leg quarters as a “standard” bbq sauce.
2. Maybe consider a low key jerk rub/sauce. Something a little different and a nice contrast.
3. Tenderloins might be nice with a Mediterranean flair (think Greek souvlaki).
4. I would use a bit of stock. Don’t seal it too tight, like you said, so you don’t end up steaming them and losing all the yummy, crispy skin.

what time should we be there? 😉

[dpearce]

Early! Otherwise there probably won't be much left! :-)

[ecowper]

Agreeing with SheilaAnn on the way to go ….

Standard at Big Bob Gibson’s (Chris Lilly) is leg/thigh quarters. If you did the quarters plus the thighs with S&G and white sauce, it would be awesome :-)

Alternative for the legs is a middle eastern approach that I like for chicken … it’s got a bit of spice, but not over the top

In a bowl, combine 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp cracked pepper, 2 tbsp baharat (see here for recipe), 4 cloves garlic (crushed or rough chopped), and juice of 1 lemon and your chicken legs. Toss well. Grill as desired.

Edit: The above quantities are for a whole chicken of 3-4 lbs. Scale appropriately for your chicken legs. I omitted salt since you said you are dry brining :-)

[Oak Smoke]

I did a bit of a retro cook two weeks ago. I marinated shin on-bone in chicken thighs in Kraft Zesty Italian dressing. Troutman used to tout this method. Anyway I marinated the chicken then basted it with fresh dressing as it grilled. Good grief it was so good! It was a great change of pace. This is the way we did it back in the early 70’s on those old cheap grills. It’s worth thinking about.

[Hulagn1971]

If you want a great traditional barbecued chicken, may I suggest basting with Carolina Treet as you grill it? This stuff is excellent and a favorite of mine and folks I know. You can probably get it off Amazon if not available locally in your neck of the woods.

https://www.southernliving.com/what-is-carolina-treet-8677922

[HawkerXP]

I had a sauce we loved that I could get at my local Ace in Littleton NC. Small batch locally made. Blanche's. The woman, Blanche passed and her daughter carried on for a while, but I guess it got to be too much for her. Gone

[Hulagn1971]

HawkerXP I found their FB page. Looks like they stopped production in July of last year. Had lots of fans for sure.

[Donw]

Even when we were younger and we lived in Canada, the Dakotas and Minnesota I always made sure that we had someone back home who would ship us bottles of Carolina Treet.

[dpearce]

So dinner went off with only a small hitch. All in all it was a success!

We had a few people that couldn't make it, which cut the guest list down to 14 total from 16. So I decided against using the leg quarters. With 8 thighs, 16 chicken drumsticks and 10lbs of tenderloins, I felt like the three leg quarters I had would be overkill. Plus they took up so much room in the Weber rotisserie that I would've had to cook both the leg quarters and thighs separately, which would put me behind.

The thighs went on the rotisserie first around 2pm. Figured I'd hold those in the oven while the drumsticks cooked on the rotisserie. And while the drumsticks were in the middle of cooking, I planned on smoking the tenderloins on the Pit Barrel.

Everything was dry brined overnight in the fridge on Saturday. Also on Saturday, I made the Big Bob Gibson's white sauce (thanks SheilaAnn for the advice!), the Raising Cane's sauce (I've had this recipe for years now, and all the kiddo's like Canes), and some Buffalo sauce. Let all that stuff set up overnight.

On Sunday morning, I used the Simon And Garfunkel rub for the thighs then used this Jerk Sticky Drumsticks recipe for the drumsticks (https://amazingribs.com/tested-recip...sticks-recipe/), and let those marinade in bags for 4-5 hours in the fridge, while I mixed up the finishing sauce. For the tenderloins I took Oak Smoke's advice, and used Italian dressing as a marinade. I figured everyone who would probably eat the tenderloins would appreciate a very simple, tried and true flavor for their chicken.

Guests were set to arrive between 3pm and 4pm, so I was shooting for a 4:30-4:45 time to table. Had the Weber up to temp and started the thighs at 2pm, painting on some BBG's White sauce near the end. Those took about an hour and a half. They went into the oven on warm and hold about 3:45, and then I refreshed the briquettes and started the drumsticks. About 15 minutes later I had the Pit Barrel fired up with the tenderloins on. A lower/slower cook with those, I only lit maybe a third of a chimney for it.

While I was waiting for the tenderloins to hit 150, I took it a step further and fired up the gasser, got out two of my iron skillets filled them with cooking oil got them up to 325-350. I had run to the store in the morning as I was out of Ground Mustard (which one of the recipes called for) and saw a sale on this batter called Louisiana Fried Chicken (or something like that). That's when I'd gotten the idea to smoke the tenderloins, then batter and fry them to finish them off. About the time the legs were ready to come off, the tenderloins hit 150. It was a bit of a mad rush to get the drumsticks into a holding pan, and get the tenderloins off in time, but with my wife's help, we managed to get that all done.

So glad I set up a table outside on the patio next to the grills. I was able to dredge the tenderloins quickly and get them fried and pulled off, without a bunch of people standing in the way. A quick 2 minute per side fry and the tenderloins were done, up to temp, and perfectly crispy. Even managed to cook 3 hotdogs on the gasser at the end for a couple picky eaters.

The drumsticks and tenderloins got destroyed within 15 minutes it seemed. I barely got even one tenderloin and drumstick. The Cane's sauce was completely gone and the BBG white sauce was at least half gone. The Buffalo sauce was probably about half gone as well. Most people didn't even bother to put anything on the drumsticks.

And I hit 4:45pm with everything. Quite pleased I actually timed everything pretty well, including letting the indoor kitchen know, so they could make sure the sides were ready as well.

The small hitch: When I took the chicken thighs out of the oven, they were very dark. I was kinda surprised that it felt so hot in there. Sure enough, when reheating the sides some of our guests brought, they had cranked up the temp to 350 for about 15 minutes and left the thighs in there just long enough to blacken the skin.

So people kinda ignored them, even after myself and another guest ate a couple and realized they were fine. Just looked overcooked but they certainly weren't. Plenty of juice, flavor was fine. A little of the white sauce, and they were good to go. So glad I had taken the advice from SheilaAnn to use chicken stock to hold them, (especially after the high heat incident).

As it turned out, with the drumsticks and tenderloins, as well as plenty of sides, no one really missed the thighs anyway.

Not to let anything go to waste, I took the rest of those thighs, deboned and chopped them up, then brought them into work today along with the white sauce. My boss and I will enjoy a smoked chicken salad for lunch today. So the small hitch actually worked in my favor.

Only one picture from the cookout. My wife had thought she had more, but on further review, no good pics of the food, just our guests enjoying it! The food was gone so quickly, even if I had a minute, or remembered, I doubt I would've gotten many pictures anyway.

I had lots of praise on the food. So, being family, they were either all lying to me, or I actually nailed it. But since I ate and enjoyed it as well, I'll go with the latter! All in all, having all three cookers running at once, and everything turning out so well, I think I pulled it off.

Thighs on the rotisserie:



Thanks for all the suggestions! Ill certainly re-read this thread many times, and try out the other recommendations! And yes, I will be making that Jerk chicken recipe again!

Really great to be part of such an awesome group!

Edit: The thighs were smoked with apple and hickory wood, the drumsticks with apple and pecan, and the tenderloins with apple and pecan. Got compliments that the smoke flavor was darn good on everything!

[barelfly]

Winner winner….that’s some good looking chicken dinner!

[RonB]

Congrats on a successful cook.