Barbecued Chicken on the Grill

Along with hot dogs and hamburgers, barbecued chicken is about as classic as it gets when it comes time for grilling.

But chicken takes longer to cook than either hot dogs or hamburgers, and loves lower cooking temperatures, so it’s easy to mess up, either under-cooking, over-charring, or both.

The trick to good barbecued chicken?

Patience.

Done right, it will take at least an hour, and even up to 2 hours. Remember that barbecue is slow and low, grilling is hot and fast. You can grill a chicken breast, but chicken thighs, legs or wings are far better barbecued.

The key here is to moderate your heat, however you can. Either set the coals of the grill all on one side so you have a cool spot, put the chicken on the top rack of the grill, farther away from the heat, or, if you have a gas grill, just turn the heat to low. Slow and steady makes the best BBQ chicken.

The following is more of a “how-to” than a recipe. We recommend using your favorite barbecue sauce; we have several homemade barbecue sauce recipes which would work beautifully with chicken.

Do you have a favorite barbecued chicken recipe? Or tip you would like to share? Please let us know about it in the comments.

Barbecued Chicken on the Grill Recipe

Chicken thighs and legs will hold up better to long, slow heat than will breasts which can more easily dry out. If you barbecue breasts, keep them on the coolest part of the grill.

This recipe assumes fairly large chicken pieces (like the main pieces from a 4 to 5 pound whole chicken). If you are working with smaller chicken pieces, they may require a shorter cooking time. If you are cooking wings, they too may be done before the other larger pieces.

A note about the skin. Even if you do not plan on eating the chicken skin, it's best to barbecue it with it on. The skin will protect the chicken pieces from drying out.

Ingredients

• 4 pounds of your favorite chicken parts (legs, thighs, wings, breasts), skin-on
• Salt
• Vegetable oil
• 1 cup barbecue sauce, store-bought or homemade

Read More: Barbecued Chicken on the Grill