Chicken
Barbecue University™
Chicken Labels Demystified
September is National Chicken Month. We’re taking the opportunity to celebrate grilled chicken in all its polymorphous glory. In the coming weeks you’ll learn how to grill whole chicken, chicken breasts, thighs, and of course, how to spatchcock a chicken. We’ll revisit the subject of Steven’s book Beer Can Chicken and other outrageous ways to grill and smoke chicken. Today we start with chicken speak. What do free-range, hormone free, cage free, certified organic, all-natural, and other chicken terms mean (if anything)? Do...
Read more →Planet Barbecue
Like It Hot—Grill It Hot
As the summer kicks into high gear and temperatures soar, the best way to beat the heat is . . . to join it. Fiery foods make you sweat, and perspiration is the body’s natural cooling mechanism. Fiery foods are enjoyed in hundreds of the world’s top food cultures. Indeed, people in some of the warmest climates across Planet Barbecue eat some of the spiciest food. Here, to challenge your inner fire-eater, are some of the most fiery dishes on the world’s barbecue trail. Just be sure to keep a glass of cold beer (or better...
Read more →Amazing Smoke-Roasted Chicken Drumsticks: Tips and a Recipe
“I can last two months on a good compliment.” —Mark Twain Not to brag, but I finally got recognized for my legs. It’s true: As I told Steven, men kept sidling up to me on Super Bowl Sunday requesting the recipe for the chicken drumsticks I’d barbecued for the party. As one remarked, “This doesn’t even taste like chicken!” That is the power of wood smoke. It adds color, flavor, and appeal to nearly everything. So, about those...
Read more →Salt Brick Chicken and More
Pollo al mattone (chicken under a brick) is one of the glories of Italian grilling. It’s so revered by Italian grill masters, that two food-obsessed cities claim its parentage: Florence and Rome. The theory is simple: you grill a spatchcocked chicken under a foiled brick. The weight of the brick compresses the meat, producing a firm, pleasing texture and crackling crisp skin. And the technique keeps delicate meats, like chicken breasts, from drying out on the grill....
Read more →The Ultimate Tailgating Food: Wings
Chickens just can’t catch a break. On July 29, we celebrated National Chicken Wing Day—an undisguised warm-up for fall tailgating season. We Americans do love our chicken wings. The National Chicken Council predicts we’ll eat 28 billion of them before year’s end. For my money, chicken wings rank among the most delectable bites on Planet Barbecue—popular in almost all grilling cultures, from Asia to Africa. And it’s no wonder. They’re the perfect finger...
Read more →Authentic Spit-Roasted Peruvian Chicken with Green Sauce
Have you ever gone out to eat only to be ambushed by a dish so memorable that it haunts your dreams, daring you to try to replicate it at home? My obsession (not counting a dalliance with Korean tacos) is Peruvian chicken, aka pollo a la brasa, or simply “charcoal chicken.” I adore its crisp, flavorful, smoke-kissed skin, its juicy flesh and the herbaceous, positively addictive green sauce that accompanies it. I first encountered this version of spit-roasted chicken in the Washington D.C. exurb of McLean,...
Read more →Revealed: Our Most Popular Chicken Recipes
The ballots are in and the votes are tallied. The winner is … chicken. That’s right, we recently polled you about the protein you grill most often. It wasn’t beef, it wasn’t pork, and it certainly wasn’t lamb. It was chicken. Not that we’re surprised, because as you travel the world’s barbecue trail, you find chicken in every grill culture. From Jamaican jerk chicken to Japanese yakitori. From Indian chicken tandoori to Peruvian chili-marinated rotisserie chicken. Of course, we...
Read more →What I’m Grilling Now: Smoke-Roasted Chicken
This is the second in a series I recently introduced on Barbecuebible.com called What I’m Grilling Now. No exotic dishes from my travels around Planet Barbecue. No icons of barbecue, with the attendant disputes: charcoal versus wood; dry rub versus wet; mustard versus vinegar sauce, etc. Just what I, Steven Raichlen, am grilling now—at home, for my family, without a special trip to the market. In other words, what Raichlen cooks on a normal weeknight using ingredients from the pantry or fridge. “The...
Read more →What I’m Grilling Now: Chicken Parmesan
Hi, everyone. I’m pleased to introduce a new column on Barbecuebible.com: What I’m Grilling Now. No exotic dishes from my travels around Planet Barbecue. No icons of barbecue, with the attendant disputes: charcoal versus wood; dry rub versus wet; mustard versus vinegar sauce, etc. No, in this column I’ll tell you what I, Steven Raichlen, am grilling now—at home, for my family, without a special trip to the market. The kind of food my wife and I prepare when I’m not...
Read more →Do Chicken Breasts Deserve Their Bad Rap?
Yeah, I know. As a food writer, I’m supposed to bash chicken breasts. So when it comes to the dark meat versus white debate, almost invariably I bang the drum for dark. Dark meat has more fat, which gives it more flavor and makes it less likely to dry out on the grill. Oh, and it’s a lot more economical that breast meat. Which is why, as you travel the world’s barbecue trail, nine grill masters out of ten prefer dark meat. Call me an iconoclast, but I actually like to grill chicken breasts....
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