I’ve mentioned before that I spend a bit of time at a fantasy football website called The Huddle. Aside from a plethora of information about fantasy football, there are forums where I can chat about various topics with other well meaning but obviously deluded NFL fans. One of the forums is dedicated to food and beverages. As one might expect, I find myself right at home amongst the denizens of that particular forum.
So just the other day, someone posted a question asking how to crisp up chicken skin whether cooking it indoors or outdoors. I jotted down a quick reply about how to properly grill a chicken leg, however I realized that what I wrote probably wasn’t a complete discussion about how to do this and that there are a fair number of people that don’t know how to properly grill a chicken leg. This brings us to the point of this blog article, the complete discussion that I didn’t write up before.
To start this discussion, we must step away from the protein, in this case chicken, and begin by talking about the grill itself. Whether one uses a charcoal grill or a gas grill, there is no intrinsic difference between the two when it comes to how the heat generated by the grill interacts with the food being cooked. In other words, heat is heat. The argument as to which is better is something best left to those special moments amongst friends when peering over the top of a frosty mug of beer, I call you a freaking chowdah head for being so obstinate in your point of view.
Ok, so back to the topic at hand. While heat is heat, there are two distinct ways that heat can be applied to food on the grill, directly or indirectly. Direct heat is as the name implies, when the food is placed directly above the heat source. Now, since my fans are such astute people, I believe that the vast majority of you have already figured out that indirect heat means that the food is not placed directly over the heat source. In the case of a gas grill, this means that typically, one or more burners are turned off while in a charcoal grill, the coals are banked to one or more sides of the grill.
This is an important distinction because foods that cook quickly benefit more from the direct cooking while foods that take longer to cook are destined for the indirect method. As a rule of thumb, foods that take longer than 20 minutes to cook use indirect heat while foods that take less use direct. This is not a hard and fast rule though and there are some foods like steaks, that use a combination of both.
Now, I’m specifically talking about chicken legs and thighs today because other chicken parts use different techniques. Once again, I’m sure that my astute readers have surmised that indirect heat is going to be the method of choice for these chicken parts. However, if you are like many backyard chefs, you’re out there playing with your meat the entire time it is on the grill. You throw it on direct heat and keep turning it every couple of minutes. What you end up with is a chicken part that resembles ash on the outside and is only now getting that meat down by the bone really warmed up. Oh and the barbecue sauce that you put on looks like Satan himself put it on.
No, the keys to good chicken are two fold. Indirect heat and stop playing with the meat. What you want to do is to prep the meat very simply. The first thing is to pull it out of the refrigerator 20 to 30 minutes before you’re ready to put it on the grill. You should really bring all your meats up to room temperature before cooking as going from ice cold to a heated environment can cause the meat to dry out. Now, rinse the chicken and pat it dry. Spray it down with a little olive oil (this helps keep the chicken parts from sticking to the grill) and then lightly salt and pepper it. If you are going to apply a dry rub of any type, this is the time to do it. Oh and did I mention that while you are doing this, you should be doing a burn down on your grill?
The burn down is an important step in keeping you grill clean. Some people do it after they cook but I find that doing before a cooking session saves time and reduces the chance that I’ve forgotten that the grill is on. The burn down is essentially taking the grill and heating it to 500-550 degrees Fahrenheit for a period of 10 to 15 minutes and then brushing off the grates. This allows for any bacterial nasties to be burned off and brushing off the grates removes any ash particles that may remain.
OK, so you’ve got the burn down going, and your chicken is prepped. The next step is to set the cooking temperature of the grill. Chicken legs and thighs are cooked over indirect medium heat. That means that the temperature inside the grill is between 350 and 450 degrees Fahrenheit. For a gas grill, turn off a burner and turn the remaining ones down to medium. For a charcoal grill, adjust the amount of coals and bank them to the side. Place the chicken on the grill and close the cover. That’s right, the cover is closed. Your grill works like a little convection oven when the cover is closed and that is exactly what we want. Now set a timer for 20 minutes and go prep the salad or something.
Do not under any circumstances open that grill! If you’re looking, you’re not cooking!
Ok, so 20 minutes later your timer starts incessantly beeping at you. Turn it off and then take your set of long handled tongs and head out to the grill. Flip each piece of chicken over and close the cover again. Reset the timer for 20 minutes and start setting the table for dinner. You probably even have time to sneak in a beer. Whatever you do, don’t open the cover of that grill!
Now when the timer goes off this time you’re still not done. Now is the time to apply any type of barbecue sauce that you want to use. That’s right, you don’t apply the sauce until the end of the cooking, usually no more than 5 to 10 minutes before pulling the chicken (and this applies to anything you’re going to use a barbecue sauce on) off the grill. The reason for this is because barbecue sauces contain a lot of sugar and you want this sugar to caramelize, not to burn. Any more than 10 minutes will burn the sugar and therefore, ruin what was going to be a beautifully cooked piece of chicken.
Alright, now flip the chicken and apply a coating of barbecue sauce. I don’t actually brush my meat with the sauce, I use more of a patting action, I think it gives me the best coating and best looking product but you can use your own choice of barbecue sauce application methods here. Once again we shall close the cover but this time, set your timer for only 5 minutes. Flip the chicken, sauce up the other side and close the cover again for 5 minutes.
You are so close to being done you can almost taste those chicken parts, can’t you? When that timer rings for the last time, pull the chicken on to a serving plate and let it sit for a couple of minutes. This is called letting the meat rest. The internal temperature will continue to rise (this rise is more pronounced in larger cuts of meat but it still happens with the chicken too). Dole out the sides on everyone’s plate and then put the chicken pieces down. You will have chicken that is crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside and everyone’s gratitude that you no longer burn their chicken.
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