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Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with reverse barbecue chicken. That's right, gorgeous, perfectly cooked barbecued chicken is not the easiest thing to do. Which is why, inspired by the reverse sear steak technique, I think I've come up with a very simple method. And hopefully your days of black on the outside raw in the middle chicken are over. Oh, and I'm also going to tease a very exciting, possibly upcoming video. But first things first, and to get started, we're going to cut a chicken in half since for me that is by far the best thing to use for barbecue chicken. And what we'll do is turn that chicken breast side down. And we'll simply use our scissors to make two cuts
right against the backbone on both sides, which of course we will save to make some broth later. Oh yeah, when you use a whole chicken, you get free broth. But anyway, once that's been removed, we'll bend the chicken open and we'll find the breast bone, which is covered by a little piece of cartilage in the center. And we will slice in about a quarter inch deep right there. And then flatten out the chicken until the breast bone reveals itself. At which point, it's going to be very simple to finish cutting this in half. And yes, you might have to give it a whack or two with your hand to get through. But it's really not that hard. And that's it. Besides trimming out any excess fat, the only
other optional thing I like to do is cut the flat sections of the wings off since I think it makes for a much nicer presentation. And also, we can add those to our broth, and then pull them out later and have a little chef's snack. And once our chicken's prepped, we'll go ahead and make our wet rub, which includes some salt, some brown sugar, some garlic powder, some freshly ground black pepper, some smoked paprika, and of course, a few shakes of cayenne to stay in shape, and then we'll finish up with some prepared barbecue sauce. or a dealer's choice. Use whatever you like, whether it's from the store or possibly homemade using our famous all-American barbecue sauce recipe. And what we'll do
once we have that all mixed up, is transfer in our chicken. And we'll give it a toss until it's thoroughly coated, which is probably easier to do with your hands, but I use tongs because I was filming and I didn't feel like washing my hands. But anyway, once coated, we'll transfer that into a baking dish or a shallow roasting pan like this with the skin side up. And then we'll use a spoon or a brush to transfer any and all that wet rub on top, applying that as evenly as we can. And once that's been accomplished, we're going to cover this in foil and pop it in the oven. Okay, if you're familiar with the reverse sear technique for steak, the meat is cooked gently in the oven first and then
finished in a pan over high heat to get some nice brown color. Well, we're basically doing the same thing here, only we're going to finish on the grill. So, once that's wrapped, we'll pop it into a 325 degree oven for exactly 45 minutes, at which point we'll pull it out and do absolutely nothing. For 1 hour, that is. Okay. We want to let this sit and rest for 60 minutes, during which time it's going to cool down while that cooking process finishes. And once that happens, we'll unwrap it. And if we want, we can move on to the grilling and finishing step. But not me. I'm doing the overnight method, which involves brushing the pan juices and wet rub over the top. And once we have that
thoughtfully applied, and this has cooled down enough to put in the fridge, we'll wrap it back up and do just that. And we'll let it sit absorbing all those beautiful flavors overnight, which I really think gives us a better final result. But as I said, it is optional. So you decide. I mean, you are, after all, the pit master of whether to go faster. But either way, to prep this for the grill, we'll take a spatula or a stiff finger and we will scrape off any what actually became a marinade off the surface and we'll do that to both halves. At which point, we'll let that chicken warm up for about 30 minutes before we hit the grill. And while we're waiting, we'll transfer everything that
was in the pan into a small saucepan. And we'll place that over medium heat and bring it to a boil. And we'll give it a stir and reduce it for a few minutes until it starts to thicken up a little bit. And as you might suspect, that's going to make an amazing sauce to mop over our chicken once it goes over the coals. Speaking of which, we're not going to use that many coals. Okay, I'm only using 14 briquettes, which I like to space out a few inches apart so that we get some very even heat and we won't have to worry about any hot spots. And what we'll do is place that chicken skin side down. And we will give that side about 3 minutes or so, just to start the browning process. And then we'll go
ahead and flip it back over skin side up. Since we're going to do the majority of the reheating with this side up, right, thanks to the pelvis and the rib cage and the breast bone, the other side has a lot more insulation. And we're really not that concerned if that side char a little bit. And as usual, anytime we're grilling, it's not a bad idea to give things a turn. just to hedge our bets with that whole even heat thing. And at this point, we can start mopping our sauce over the top since eventually we're going to turn this back over to get a little more browning. And as you'll see, we'll apply a bunch of sauce to the other side as well. And it was pretty windy out, so I did cover this
occasionally between turns. And yes, I'm still rocking the $30 expert grill, which just refuses to fall apart, so I can get a new nice one. But anyway, we'll flip that over. And like I said, we'll apply some sauce to the other side. And again, we're just going to give that skin side a few minutes facing the coals since we want a fairly gentle browning and light charring. So after a few minutes, we'll flip it back over. And we'll basically just repeat those steps two or three more times until our chicken's nice and hot and safely heated through. And we've achieved an absolutely gorgeous finish. And of course, this is going to take longer if you do the overnight method, right? This
step roughly took like 30 35 minutes. Whereas if you toss this on the grill right after you bake it, it's going to go a lot faster since you're basically just browning the skin and making sure the chicken's fully cooked. Oh, and I should have mentioned if you don't want to go with the chicken halves, I'm pretty sure this method is going to work no matter what you use, whether that's some bone in thighs or even some boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Okay, you obviously have to change the pre-bake times, but the idea of cooking the chicken perfect first and then finishing on the grill should translate, but in any event, once we're happy and we decide it's done, we'll pull it off
the heat and we will bring it inside and transfer it onto a cutting board, being careful not to tear the skin. Whoops, I just tore the skin. But that's okay. That's what extra barbecue sauce is for. And once I covered up that little situation, I went ahead and transferred over some folded up cornbread crepes, which are basically tortillas made with cornbread batter instead of masa. And once I perfect the recipe, which is hopefully very soon, I'd love to show you how to make those. And that's it. I finished up with some freshly sliced green onions before I grabbed a fork and knife and went in for the official taste. And that, my friends, was pretty much a perfect barbecue chicken. All
right. By baking it first and then letting it sit overnight and all that goodness once it is finished on the grill as shown, not only do we achieve a perfect appearance, but the meat is going to be very moist and tender and it would be fantastic no matter how you served it, but what I'm going to do next is cut a few slices. And I'm going to grab a little extra sauce and some fresh lime wedges. And I'm going to tear one of these cornbread crepes in half. And I'm going to top it with the chicken. And one slice is probably enough, which is why I did three. And I'm going to drizzle on a little bit of sauce and a few drops of lime juice. And I'm going to roll that up. And I cannot think of a
better way to eat barbecue chicken than this. And if you know of one, please tell me so I can check it out. But anyway, that's it. What I'm calling reverse barbecue chicken, which as I explained is loosely based on the reverse sear steak technique. And by using this method, we take a lot of variables out of play. And as long as your chicken's cooked almost, if not perfectly, before we grill it, I think you're going to have some amazing results. And no matter what barbecue sauce you use or how you decide to spice it up, I loved everything about this. And I really do hope you give it a try soon. So, please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much more info as usual. And as always,
enjoy.
