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.

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.

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.

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.