Barbecue Chicken with Alabama White Barbecue Sauce - The Springtime Grilling Series
It's springtime again, and as everything begins to turn green and blossom, the grill glimmers in the morning sun from the winter thaw, ready to bring forth a bountiful crop of grilled food and goodies. We continue the Springtime Grilling Series with Barbecue Chicken with Alabama White Barbecue Sauce, featuring slow-grilled chicken quarters and a traditional homemade white sauce for marinating, basting, and serving. Alabama White Barbecue Sauce combines a mayonnaise base with robust spices and has become a signature staple of the state.
This recipe calls for two versions of the Alabama White Barbecue Sauce – one for marinating and basting and a thinner version for serving. We are not using store-bought mayonnaise for this sauce, but instead blend egg yokes, apple cider vinegar, and spices in a food processor until formed. The marinade features herbs and spices to infuse the chicken, whereas the sauce brings some heat with cayenne and black pepper. The homemade mayonnaise base and spices cause the chicken to finish tender, juicy, and aromatic. The chicken is grilled over medium-high indirect heat in 10-minute increments for 40 minutes, flipping, basting, and tenting with foil in between. Put some Alabama on shuffle, grab cold during, and fire up the grill with the Springtime Grilling Series.
Serves: 4
Barbecue Chicken with Alabama White Barbecue Sauce Ingredients
For the Chicken
- 4 egg yolks
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup water
- 2 tablespoons poultry seasoning (or make your own -- we used 1 1/2 teaspoons each of dried marjoram, oregano, thyme, and rosemary, plus 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg)
- 2 tablespoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt (or 3 1/2 teaspoons fine salt)
- 1 cup grapeseed oil
- 6 chicken leg/thigh quarters
- 1 ½ cups Alabama White Barbecue Sauce (recipe follows)
For the Alabama White Barbecue Sauce
- 2 egg yolks
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt (or 1 1/8 teaspoons fine salt)
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
- 1 cup grapeseed oil
Barbecue Chicken with Alabama White Barbecue Sauce Directions
For the Chicken
- In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, blend the egg yolks, vinegar, water, poultry seasoning, and salt until the yolks fluff a little, about 30 seconds. With the processor running, slowly drizzle in the oil; the mixture will blend, emulsify, and resemble mayonnaise. You will hear the sound change to a whop-whop; it should take about 1 minute. Spoon the marinade into a large zip-top bag, add the chicken pieces, and massage until the chicken is completely covered with the marinade. Zip the top closed, pressing out any air as you seal the bag. Set the bag in a bowl in the refrigerator overnight or for up to 24 hours.
- Pour 3/4 cup of the Alabama White Barbecue Sauce into a bowl for basting. Heat a grill for indirect medium-high heat. On a gas grill, leave one side of the grill unlit. On a wood or charcoal grill, rake the coals to one side. Remove the chicken from the marinade, pat completely dry, scrape the grill clean and coat it with oil. Place the chicken, skin side down, over the unheated part of the grill, and cover with an aluminum pan or tent with foil. After 10 minutes, flip the chicken pieces, moving them to a hotter part of the grill, but still over indirect heat. Cover again with the pan or foil. After ten more minutes, baste the chicken with the sauce, flip, so the skin side is down, and baste again. Cover with the pan or foil, cook for another 10 minutes, and then baste, flip, and cover one last time, for a total cooking time of 40 minutes, or until the chicken -- including the final round of basting -- reaches 165°F. Discard the basting sauce. Remove the chicken from the grill and rest, tented with foil or a foil pan, for 10 minutes. Serve with the remaining sauce on the side.
For the Alabama White Barbecue Sauce
- In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, combine the egg yolks, lemon juice, vinegar, salt, garlic powder, cayenne, and black pepper and process until the yolks fluff a little, about 30 seconds. With the processor running, slowly drizzle in the oil; the mixture will bend and emulsify but won't be as thick as the marinade used for the barbecue chicken. You will again hear the sound change to a whop-whop; it should take about a minute.
Taken from Food52.com https://food52.com/recipes/29178-kevin-gillespie-s-barbecue-chicken-with-alabama-white-barbecue-sauce