Dry Spice Rubbed Barbeque Chicken

Dry Spice Rubbed Barbeque Chicken

Barbeque chicken need not be slathered in sweet barbeque sauce to be delicious. This dry rub was developed specifically for chicken and is a very nice balance of spicy and smoky. I like to ad rub it on the chicken and leave it to infuse it's flavors into the meat. A couple of hours or even less is fine but I mostly leave the dry rubbed chicken in a Ziploc bag overnight for deeply infused flavor.

This chicken can be grilled for a speedier meal or slowly barbequed over indirect heat for slow cooked flavor. As picture, this dish was charcoal barbequed under indirect heat between 300 and 325 degrees for about an hour and a half but I simply cut the chicken in two halves, so smaller pieces may take a shorter time. Just use your meat thermometer to ensure the meat is thoroughly cooked through the thickest parts.

SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR INDIRECT  BBQ

If you are using your gas grill to slow barbeque your chicken, place the meat on one side of the grill and use the burner or burners on the opposite side so that it is not directly over heat. Regulate the gas to keep the temperature at about 300-325 degrees for slow barbequed flavor. The same technique can also be used with a charcoal grill, just keep the charcoal on one side and the meat on the opposite side.

You can add smoke flavor by soaking hardwood chips like mesquite, apple, cherry or hickory in warm water for about a half hour. A couple of handfuls will do. Wrap the soaked wood chips in a double layer of heavy duty aluminum foil and poke only two holes in the foil, one at either end to allow the smoke to escape. On a gas grill,I place the foil packets in a vegetable grill pan so that the packet is not sitting directly on the gas burner. On a charcoal grill, simply toss the packet directly onto the hot coals. You can add more soaked wood chip packets as they burn out, it all depends on how much smoke favor you wish to add. One or two of these packets should be enough for chicken, you don't want it to take on too much smoke flavor and interfere with the flavor of the meat.

• One whole chicken cut in two halves or in pieces. Bone-in legs or breasts also work well.

Wash and trim the chicken of excess skin and fat and pat dry with paper towels. Sprinkle the dry rub liberally all over the surface of the chicken and rub in well to make good contact. Place in a large Ziploc bag/s and leave in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or overnight.

Grill or slow barbeque the chicken as instructed above. This chicken is still excellent without wood smoking.

Smoky Barbeque Chicken Dry Rub

Makes about 2 cups dry rub.

• 3 tbsp paprika
• 2 tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 3 tbsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp powdered ginger
• 1 tbsp chipotle powder
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp ground thyme
• 2 tbsp ground sage or poultry seasoning
• 2 tbsp dry mustard powder
• 2 tbsp garlic powder
• 3 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp crushed or ground fennel seed

Mix together well and store any unused dry rub in an airtight container in a cool place or in the freezer.