Crispy Skin Goodness: Roadside Chicken Tutorial, Recipe, & PRON
 

Roadside Chicken involves the use of an oil based mop sauce that is frequently brushed on the chicken while cooking over moderate heat and helps create the oft-coveted crispy chicken skin so many of us love.

I dug around the internet, and found many recipes for the mop sauce, but as always, I make modifications to suit my own taste.

For this cook, we used a fresh free range young chicken we buy at a local market. They are quite small, not much larger than a Cornish Hen, but they are the best chickens we've ever tasted. After the chicken was cut up, we placed the chicken on a small baking rack so the skin could dry out for about an hour. This also helps the crisping process, as drier skin has less moisture to cook off.

After the missus made up the mop sauce, I lightly seasoned the chicken with Lawry's and fresh ground black pepper:

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Here's the chicken ready to go on the Weber, along with two small pieces of Hickory and Pecan I put on the coals to help create a smokier flavor. I used enough coals to cover 2/3 of the charcoal grate, with a smaller empty spot so I could create a cooler quadrant on the grill:

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With this particular cooking style, you need to brush the chicken every 3-5 minutes or so with the mop sauce so it builds up layers of flavor.

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Here we are at about 80% done, with the breasts standing upright so the thickest part gets the most heat, ensuring a more even cook:

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After the chicken was done, we plated it and let it rest:

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It was absolutely delicious! The skin was crispy and very flavorful from the repeated moppings it got, and the meat was very juicy.

Here's the recipe:

Moose’s Roadside Chicken:


1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup veg or olive oil
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 TBS Sea or Kosher salt
1 TBS white sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp celery seed


Cut up one chicken, and after it has been washed, dry thoroughly with paper towels and place chicken pieces on a baking rack placed over a suitable sized pan for about an hour. Then season chicken pieces with seasoning or sea salt and black pepper.

Prepare grill with a single layer of hot coals on about 2/3rds of charcoal grate. You can add a small piece or two of smoking wood of your choice to the coals if you prefer a smokier taste. Place chicken on grill, and cook uncovered. Apply the mop sauce every 5 min to both sides and turn every 5 minutes. Apply one final coating a few minutes before removing from the grill.

Sounds like a really good recipe. Thanks, I will have to give it a try!

Looks great.

Thanks Moose! Looks scrumptious.

Thanks for the recipe that looks delicious! This has been on my to do list for a long time I need to try it.

Gonna try that this weekend thanks Moose

I too will be trying this. Thanks

screw the chicken (although it looks great) that sounds like it would be awesome on a loin chop.

< been making this chicken a long time now. It is The House Recipe.
One thing I do, not mentioned here, I make two batches of this recipe omitting the oil in one. Using the oil-less batch, I marinate the chicken up to 8 hours before grill time (and as little as 1 hour). This just adds a little more flavour.
Also, I use Turbinado sugar in place of white sugar. No particular reason.

Looks great...another thing on my to do list.

Crispy skin? I have to try this!!! Thanks-

Looks tasty! Thanks for sharing the recipe.

Yummmm.. It looks and sounds great. Thanks for the recipe Moose!

I think I just found my new chicken recipe

Great looking chicken. Thanks for the recipe and technique!