Chicken for Family and Friends

Personally, I am all about chicken thighs, but, certain members of my family prefer breasts, so when we are cooking, it is whole chickens. When I am alone, just thighs. My favorite thing is roasted chicken, with BBQ rub, whatever is not running low. I have a basic rub that I augment with sage or poultry seasoning and dry mustard when I am not being lazy. Then throw them on the kettle, lately I have been doing high heat with them, 450F or so, about an hour.

I make a killer teriyaki chicken as well, but, honestly it is not my go to chicken dish, it takes more preparation time and the flavor is a little much for normal eating.

Hi Meat,
Our families and friends favorite has been, Mel's special chicken. Mel is my dad and this is his recipe and people can't get enough of it. It is grilled and seems like it won't work out but test it once and you will be hooked as well. I prefer thighs and my wife prefers breasts so this works for all chicken parts and whole as well. Fist you lightly salt and pepper and garlic powder one side and put the seasoned side down on the grill and salt, pepper and garlic powder the other side. Let this cook 10 minutes and turn and season with salt and garlic powder only and cook 10 minutes. turn season with salt and garlic powder and cook ten minutes. Do this for one hour total and the last seasoned include pepper again. That is it. Good Luck!!!

Yep, and a great addition is some rosemary one time on each side at the beginning.

We tend to be very busy with 3 teenagers in sports so not much time for long cooks. Chicken is either thighs some seasoning like garlic, onion, turmeric, sage sauce on top. Breasts are usually marinaded in Lowery's marinade and both are indirect grilled. Sunday's are usually pork butt, ribs, country ribs, chops, etc. Indirect grilled sauce on top. Friday is pizza day, sometimes home made sometimes frozen. Depends on Dad's mood. Friday is my only time off from the kitchen.

When entertaining spare ribs rubbed indirect grilled sauce on top and maybe hamburgers and hotdogs. Otherwise Chinese, Italian, Mexican all depends what's on sale. Take all the above and roll the dice.

I did my first serious smoke of a pork butt a few weeks ago after spending time on with the brethren. Came out excellent. Yes I did happen prons exist but not posted yet.

Usually grilled breasts and thighs around our house for the quick dinners. Keep it simple with Yardbird rub.

For the longer cooks brined and smoked spatchcock chicken is the preferred method.

Everyone except me in my family wants only breasts, so we do those. I do whole birds on occasion and store the dark leftovers or gift it to other family/friends. Everyone likes it smoked hot (about 375) with mild smoke from a bed of lump and a few wood coals from a strong flavored wood like hickory or even mesquite. The family goes ape over that stuff.

If it's just me I'll cook thighs with either jerk seasoning, or use the Roadside Chicken marinade/method (direct, turning and basting often).

My wife and son prefer white meat, so if we're all eating it's usually whole birds. I'll marinate in zesty italian dressing, spatchcock, rub with Plowboy's Yardbird and cook indirect with a small chunk of cherry thrown on the lump.

If I have a little more time I'll brine the bird a day or two ahead of time, dry, stuff the cavity with chopped onions, apples, herbs, and a little rub and olive oil, truss it up, coat the skin and the meat under the skin with a little oil and rub, and cook it on the kettle using the rotisserie - that's what I did on Monday and (if I must say so myself) it was tasty!

Chicken at our house is generally roasted beer butt style. We like a variety of rubs, lemon pepper, Old Bay or any BBQ rub I am goofing around with. Typically it's lemon pepper or Old Bay. Sometimes I smoke sometimes not.

One particular seasoning mix we like is mustard, worcestershire sauce, garlic power, onion powder, black pepper, Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning and cayenne pepper. If I am cooking the bird in the oven I'll often substitute chipotle chile powder instead of the cayenne.

When I am doing the quick weeknight thing I usually keep it pretty simple...marinade in Lowery's Baja Chipotle and then direct grill. I typically only flip once, and I don't usually baste them during cooking. When I am doing a bigger whole family party type thing, I will typically go ahead and do the comp thighs.

I prefer chicken thighs and ribs because they are easiest to prep and cook for some of the younger, fussier eaters in the family. i use ken's zesty italian dressing dressing on the chicken about 24hrs before i put them on the smoker. some racks of ribs i use a light rub and others i marinate in bbq sauce beforehand.

For just myself and/or family? Salt, pepper, and cayenne on lightly oiled breasts and drumsticks on the grill with a low direct heat for about 45 minutes then sauced and cooked for another 15 minutes or so until I get a nice glaze.

Smoked chicken legs with Butt Glitter at my house! Slap 'em on the UDS around 270 to 290 degrees for 3 hours. Turn once at the half way point. Then fight over the last one!

My wife makes a mean grilled chicken quesadilla that we've served company several times. I also like to make a simple marinated/rubbed pork tenderloin on the grill too. I still don't have my smoker yet so I've nothing to compare on personal experience! :icon_frow

My wife and son wont let me use anything other then todd's dirt since we got it a month or so ago.

Well, for chicken, I like to experiment and try new rubs, marinades, sauces and glazes. As for the parts, I prefer bone in breasts with the skin to bones and skinless. More flavor there for me. My wife prefers the opposite, so I try to add more when it's skinless and boneless breasts. Kids and me also love legs and thighs and they are content with grilled and then a simple q sauce applied before serving. THe family also loves Pappy's Hot Spice on all the parts. Great rub for bird. But my all time favorite is thighs. However there is a lot to be said about doing a whole bird as a BCC or spatched. Last really nice slather I used was a basil/lime pesto on a whole spatched bird. THe flavor was incredible. As for the other meats, beef(steaks) just some Montreal, for pork I go with sweeter rubs. My side of the family cooks a lot differently from my wifes. My side uses lots of herbs, spices, heat, etc in everything and we like to experiment with following a recipe. My wife's side like to keep everything simple in flavor and when they try something new it's from a recipe. Nothing wrong with this, but cook outs etc always have the same flavor profile. With chicken I also like to go with hot and spicy and then totally change it up with sweet like a jam glaze and have both at the same time. Hot wings and raspberry glazed thighs go very well together on the same plate. Man, now I'm hungry.:-D