Gotta enjoy fires outside while one can. NE BBQ Chicken.

[pen]

Won't be long and BBQ chicken season will be over. To be done right, the thighs alone take right around an hour on the bbq, I'll do a steak or chops in the winter, but I'm not babysitting something for an hour once the temps start dropping!

Not sure how many of you are familiar with the "white sauce" style bbq chicken that is done here in the north east, but doing some thighs up in that manner is a winner with my family.

Light them outside fires while it's still fun to do so!

 

[fishingpol]

White sauce? Elaborate please, while I go get a bib. Looks fine.

 

[pen]

It's a really simple sauce to baste the chicken in while cooking, this recipe makes about a pint which is just what it takes to cook about 6-8 thighs over the course of an hour. I turn them often, and let them spend more time skin up. You want the skin just crisp and not slimy, but not crunchy either.

If you dob them every time you turn (I probably turn every 5 mins, more if the fire is a bit too hot) then it's hard to go wrong. Once they hit about 160 degrees then I start focusing on getting the skin just right then turn and let them get to desired final temp.

Patience is the key. I grew up doing chicken halves in this manner with several dozen to a rack that would take 2 people to turn over, and a big mop to dob them with the gallons of sauce made up. Doing halves takes much longer than thighs alone. Halves are great for a big party, but the thighs were always my favorite part anyway, so when I'm just cooking for the family, that's all I do up.

Chicken BBQ Sauce (Compliments of Great Grandma Sill)

1/2 cup oil (I use canola)
1 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons salt
1 1/2 tea poultry seasoning
1/2 tea black pepper
1 egg

Making it up in a quart mason jar works well since it's easy to shake it up to get it well mixed, and then re-shake if/when it separates as it sits. For small batches I dob with a silicone basting brush, if we are cooking for a graduation party or reunion or such, it's a cotton basting mop.

BBQ chicken done in this manner is popular several times a summer for each of the area fire companies, fairs, car shows, and even vendors selling every Sunday for the after church crowd. Not sure just how small the region is that enjoys chicken like this, but it's good eating here in North East Pa and the Southern Tier of NY.

pen

 

[thewoodlands]

Looks great Pen, you can keep the chicken, I'll take the wood in the background.

zap

 

[pen]

Looks great Pen, you can keep the chicken, I'll take the wood in the background.

zap

Thanks zap. Not sure how your chicken comes out, but I do know my stacking has nothing on yours.

 

[BrotherBart]

I gotta try that! Love me some leg quarters.

Pouring rain right now so I have to wait.

 

[thewoodlands]

I can never be considered a good stacker until I get rid of the t-post. Is that wood for this year?

zap

 

[BrotherBart]

zap looking at your stacks I know you have some Swiss in your genes. I think they teach wood stacking in high school in Switzerland.

 

[pen]

I can never be considered a good stacker until I get rid of the t-post. Is that wood for this year?

zap

Yep, that's where I'll be starting this year. It's getting covered right after labor day. Combination of maple, beech, ash and a little birch. Been split and stacked for over 2 years and I'm kinda anxious to look inside that holz hausen to see what that wood is going to be like. It's been covered each winter, and let open for the summer.

pen

 

[thewoodlands]

zap looking at your stacks I know you have some Swiss in your genes. I think they teach wood stacking in high school in Switzerland.

Please send some rain up north BB, another month without rain and the brook will be dry along with a chit load of wells. Just another class I wOOd have struggled with!

zap

 

[thewoodlands]

Yep, that's where I'll be starting this year. It's getting covered right after labor day. Combination of maple, beech, ash and a little birch. Been split and stacked for over 2 years and I'm kinda anxious to look inside that holz hausen to see what that wood is going to be like. It's been covered each winter, and let open for the summer.

pen

Sounds like you'll have some nice dry wood. We have some three old beech that we plan on burning in the colder months, the wife wanted to burn it last year but we never hit a cold streak.

Are you putting up the recipe for the white sauce?
zap

 

[pen]

Sounds like you'll have some nice dry wood. We have some three old beech that we plan on burning in the colder months, the wife wanted to burn it last year but we never hit a cold streak.

Are you putting up the recipe for the white sauce?
zap

Love beech, even though it can be a sob splitting sometimes. Next winter is primarliy locust, so I'm banking on it being cold!

Recipe is in the 3rd post down from the top.

pen

 

[pen]

I gotta try that! Love me some leg quarters.

Pouring rain right now so I have to wait.

Bring a cooler with the drink's you'll need with you. I didn't bring enough and walked back to the shop for another and by the time I came back and turned them, lost a nickle sized piece of skin on that thigh at 11o'clock. The egg in that sauce is meant for browning in med-low temps, so keep things moist and keep them moving, too hot or too long on one side and things progress quickly on ya. If you notice, that skin has no grill marks on it yet is browned well. It takes a lot of turning and dobbing to keep it that way. That nickle of precious skin that was lost, was what would have been a grill mark.

ETA: This sauce should be used over a careful wood fire or charcoal only. Tried it on the propane weber once, and the chicken came out great, but when I cranked the poor girl up to burn things off from the low and slow chicken I wound up with such a grease fire that it partially melted the aluminum directional pan near the bottom of the unit Sometimes, there are no shortcuts.

pen

 

[Lousyweather]

I KNEW I shouldnt have opened and read this thread! Now Im hungry!

 

[nate379]

I've tried to BBQ in the winter and I've found my grille doesn't have enough power to cook steak at -10*. It's like the propane freezes up or something?

 

[begreen]

No outside fires allowed here until it starts raining again. But that looks like a nice one to try on the BBQ.

 

[nate379]

Can take the rain we have been getting. I let my lawn go for 2 weeks while I was gone, took me 3 passes with my big mower (25hp, 50" deck zero turn) to get it kinda decent. Some places it was well over a foot tall.

No outside fires allowed here until it starts raining again. But that looks like a nice one to try on the BBQ.

 

[homebrewz]

I think that recipe is similar to a Brooks clone recipe I use. Brooks is a well-known BBQ rib and chicken place in Oneonta, NY. Its the way I do chicken on the grill usually. I never thought of it as being a regional thing, but it makes sense.

 

[GAMMA RAY]

I never heard of chicken prepared that way. Pen, are you sure it is a Nepa thang? I think you are joshing us.
Looks fab though.

 

[pen]

I never heard of chicken prepared that way. Pen, are you sure it is a Nepa thang? I think you are joshing us.
Looks fab though.

Down in "da valley" where you are, it's a different world. When I lived in Wilkes Barre, I never saw it either. Get up north just a bit and you'll find it all over.

 

[Lousyweather]

tried this recipe- gotta tell ya its darn good! and easy! even in my smoker......and up here, you dont see these recipes much.....thanks, Pen

 

[pen]

tried this recipe- gotta tell ya its darn good! and easy! even in my smoker......and up here, you dont see these recipes much.....thanks, Pen

glad to hear it!

 

[DianeB]

I cheat, I par boil my chicken first before it goes on the grill. We only gill in the winter when we have company...the guys move out on the deck with some brew and cigars, usually the food gets cooked while they are out there.

 

[fishingpol]

I cheat, I par boil my chicken first before it goes on the grill. We only gill in the winter when we have company...the guys move out on the deck with some brew and cigars, usually the food gets cooked while they are out there.

Me to. Well, I pressure cook thighs for a few minutes. I'm not sure why. Always have, always will.

 

[hossthehermit]

Light them outside fires while it's still fun to do so!