Cooking Tips and Articles

7 Tips for Grilling Chicken 

Most people don't take enough time to barbecue the proper way. If you are in a hurry, don't grill chicken. As any weekend patio chef will tell you, it takes time for the smoke and the love to set in, and if you try to cook chicken too fast, it will come out either raw or burned. Follow these tips to keep your fowl from becoming foul this weekend.

Remove fat. Before cooking on the grill, the chicken should have the fat trimmed. This helps to reduce flare-ups when grilling. The easiest way is to use poultry shears. It is mostly the dark meat, and particularly the thighs, that need trimming.

Soak in brine. A good salt bath brings the best out of a chicken. Marinate the pieces in a brine solution of about 1/4 cup of salt to 1 quart of water. This will keep the chicken juicy when grilling and make it tender when eating. Use a paper towel to wipe the salt solution off the chicken before grilling. You can go ahead and marinate it in something else before putting it on the grill, or you can add some spices in with the brine. Caution: When you put seasoning on the chicken, keep in mind that it has already been in this brine, so pay attention to the amount of salt you use.

Add seasoning. Don't apply sauce yet, but do apply seasonings if you plan to use them. Where you can, lift up the skin and push some of the seasoning up under the skin.

Cook on low heat. Don't get in a hurry. Cook the chicken on low heat. If you don't, the outside will get more done than the inside, and the chicken may even burn on the outside.

Cook on the cool side of grill. This is one of the most important tips. Don't cook over direct heat. Create or find a cool spot on the grill and cook the chicken there. Direct heat will result in burned, underdone chicken.

Apply barbecue sauce. If you are going to use it, apply the barbecue sauce shortly before removing the chicken from the grill. If you apply it in the beginning, it will caramelize and burn. Wait until a few minutes before removing it from the heat.

Add more sauce. Serve the chicken with additional barbecue sauce. Don't serve it with contaminated sauce -- that which has come in contact with the chicken. Serve the extra sauce in a small container alongside of or on top of the main plate.