My Barbecue Sauce For Chicken..

[Jafo232]

Sauce:

* 1 1/3 cup brown sugar (granulated or “brownulated” is best).
* 1 15 ounce can of crushed tomatoes.
* 1 cup of cider vinegar.
* 1 large white onion chopped fine.
* 7 tablespoons Grey Poupon dijon mustard.
* 1 teaspoon of salt.
* 1 1/2 teaspoons of cayenne pepper.

Mix all of the above ingredients in a medium sauce pan and simmer for 15 minutes.

* 7 - 10 pounds of chicken: drumsticks, thighs, whole legs, and breasts. I do not recommend boneless or skinless chicken.
* 1 tablespoon Salt.


Place all of the poultry into a large pot and fill with water until covered.

Add tablespoon salt.

Bring to a boil.

Preheat grill.

After boiling for about 15 - 20 minutes remove from heat and strain all of the water and if necessary, rinse off any fat with hot water.

Clean out the pot, or get another of the same size and place all of the chicken back in the pot.

Pour the barbecue sauce over the chicken and mix well so all pieces are coated. Reserve the remaining sauce.

By this time, your grill should be warmed up. Take the chicken to the grill and place each piece SKIN SIDE UP on the grill. Make sure the flames are not touching the chicken as we do not want black poultry for dinner.

Let cook for 10 minutes with the grill cover down.

Open grill and with tongs or a fork take each piece of chicken and dunk it into the sauce completely and place skin side down.

Let cook for 10 minutes SKIN SIDE DOWN. Keep an eye that flames are not burning the chicken.

Repeat this three times more with the last time resulting in the chicken being skin side up and let cook until sauce gels. Make sure you dunk the chicken into the sauce each time you flip it.

At this point the chicken should be cooked. You can test with a large piece to be sure but note the sauce is very red and may make the meat appear to be raw when it is not. A good way to test if it is done is just see how easy the meat falls off the bone. If you really have to work at it, then it probably is not done.

Ideally you want the chicken to be a bit crunchy, yet not burnt, but covered with sauce. It may be messy, but it will be delicious.

Culled this from my site: jeffsrecipes.com

[GregGraves]

That sounds enticing. I've had mustard with pork chops and have never tried it with chicken though. You're also barbecuing to crisp, while most bbq's are to tender done.

Do you use a gas grill or charcoal grill? I'm perhaps old fashioned and feel that charcoal lump grilling cooks better then gas grills. But honestly, I've never owned a gas grill so I can't really knock one. I see people paying a lot from one at Lowe's so they must work well.

[Jafo232]

I normally use gas, but from time to time break out the charcoal..

[oldbay]

Does it make any difference? Gas or Charcoal? I heard a story on NPR from a guy that write The Science of Cooking (sorry I don't recall the author's name) and he was certain that charcoal was best.

[oldbay]

Jeff, that sauce really sounds interesting. Did you create it? The vinegar brings Adobo to mind, yet you use tomatoes, mustard, cayenne and sugar in it which has my curiosity going. Definitely a nice mix of flavors and heat.

[Jafo232]

Originally Posted by oldbay

Does it make any difference? Gas or Charcoal? I heard a story on NPR from a guy that write The Science of Cooking (sorry I don't recall the author's name) and he was certain that charcoal was best.

That is an argument of the ages. I suppose charcoal probably imparts more flavor that gas as it is smokier. However, there are many that swear by cooking with wood over gas or charcoal.

What it is for me, I cook on the grill all the time and having to wait and deal with all the mess that is part of charcoal or wood cooking is really not a plus. Gas is by far the most convenient.

Originally Posted by oldbay

Jeff, that sauce really sounds interesting. Did you create it? The vinegar brings Adobo to mind, yet you use tomatoes, mustard, cayenne and sugar in it which has my curiosity going. Definitely a nice mix of flavors and heat.

I can't say I created it from scratch. An aunt of mine has a similar recipe, I just took it to new places.

I think that's the way with most recipes.

[KYHeirloomer]

Well, I'm not going to enter the charcoal vs gas fray, other than to say I don't see any difference between grilling on an outdoor gas unit and cooking on my rangetop in the house.

There's something about charcoal (and, yes, wood) that makes food special.

But, each to his own.

I'm intrigued by the use of that much mustard. And by the idea of pre-boiling the chicken pieces. Seems to me that would leach out what little flavor modern chicken has to begin with.

My real concern is the cooking time. 15-20 minutes preboil, then 50 minutes on the grill? Sounds like the charcoal is the part you're eating.

[Jafo232]

There are a few reasons why this recipe calls for boiling the chicken first.

You are constantly applying sauce from the beginning of the cooking process. If you were doing so with raw chicken, well, the last coat of sauce would could contain all those nasty things on raw chicken.

It drops a lot of the fat from the thighs and legs, which leads to less flare ups; the biggest issue with grilling chicken.

The sauce is so rich, the last thing you will notice is any loss of flavor.

When you are constantly dunking the chicken and turning it, the dunking part cools the chicken, and the act of constantly opening the grill and temporarily moving the pieces also slows the cooking process. This is why the cook time is bumped up. Of course, all grilling is a feel process so times may be a bit longer or shorter depending on many factors.