Ingredients
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2 bottles of beer
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15 grams of salt
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30 grams of brown sugar
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1 lemon
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60 grams of aromatics herbsthyme, laurel, rosemary, sage, tarragon, fennel
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2 kg of chicken1 whole bird
Directions
With the arrival of spring, BBQ is a real pleasure, a relaxing Zen moment that brings family and friends together and allows me to express all my culinary creativity.
But often among exotic sauces, tropical marinades and Caribbean rubs, we tend to forget the simplicity of a piece of meat cooked on the BBQ. The food cooked in the barbecue is good for the flavor that embers and smoke can give to the dish, so don’t forget the grilled chicken. A simple roasted chicken, with a light rub, chopped herbs and a couple of beers, but nothing more.
Grilled chicken is the quintessence of simplicity and the taste (joy) of cooking on the grill, but precisely in this primitive elegance, we find the taste that our hominid ancestors loved so much. Today I will give you all the instructions to prepare the perfect grilled chicken, cooked with the American barbecue, but we could say that it is also baked chicken, because, (allow me the parenthesis), the oven BBQ was born first, indeed the oven is a more civilized and homely form of the barbecue, but the concept is the same: cooking with indirect heat. Ok, throw in the rest and let’s go hunting for chickens!
Before leaving, I recommend taking some time. Remember that before grilling the chicken it is necessary to work it with the brine, the brine of water-beer and salt, necessary to soften and flavor the chicken properly. This is to say that despite being a spartan preparation, it is not a recipe to improvise.
Ingredients for making the perfect grilled chicken
- 2 bottles of beer + 1 to sip
- 15 grams of salt
- 30 grams of sugar
- the juice of 1 lemon
- a bunch of aromatic herbs of your choice
- 1 whole chicken of 2 kg
How to make the perfect grilled chicken
As you have seen, the ingredients are very few and easy to find. Indeed I anticipate that the hardest part is uncorking the beers and resisting the temptation to drink them right away!
I’ll tell you right away the secret to a delicious grilled chicken is the marinade, the brine, to add nuances of taste to a fairly monolithic block of meat.
Arm yourself with a nice zipped food bag that is large enough or do it with the vacuum machine.
Ok, let’s start: put the beers in the bag/tray, then add the salt, sugar and lemon rub, close and let it marinate in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours, overnight would be better. If you want to save time, the FoodSaver V3840 is an excellent investment for those who love marinating meat, the Ferrari of vacuum marinating machines.
A little tip: to prevent the bag from breaking, put the chicken in a protective container.
Why so much emphasis on this blessed marinade?
The marinade, but also a simple brine, is essential to impart flavor to the chicken meat and to ensure that the skin becomes crunchy and tasty, that’s all.
When the chicken is ready, remove the chicken from the bag and dry it carefully. Throw away the marinade, I know throwing the beer is a stab in the heart, but it’s gone now …
Cooking chicken on the grill
Switching to the grill, light the embers and get ready for indirect cooking, with the aluminum pan in the middle and the embers placed all around.
When the bbq reaches a temperature of 175-180 ° C, put the chicken on the grill and close the lid.
Internal cooking temperature of grilled chicken
As usual, rely on the internal temperature rather than time. However, it should be ready in an hour, check with an instant thermometer and if it has reached a temperature of 83 ° C the chicken is cooked to perfection. If you don’t have a thermometer, the HENMI thermometer will change your life: six probes, LCD, remote up to 90 meters and ridiculous cost for an excellent product.
And now you know all the tricks of the trade to cook chicken on the grill, you can forget the rotisserie chickens or those made in the oven, because once you try this, there is no turning back.
What wine to pair with grilled chicken?
We choose a red wine of great elegance, with rocky tannins and enveloping notes of blueberry and spices: the Lagrein from the Cobelli winery is the ideal wine. If you want to combine a lighter and more mineral wine, uncork a Piedmontese Freisa.
If you prefer to combine a cocktail, the aromatic freshness of the Tequila Sunrise is highly recommended.