Alabama Backwoods BBQ Chicken, Take 3

I said, "Yep, there will be a Take 3 and I think the only thing I'll do differently from this take is to put the sauce over the chicken immediately before baking and then bake the full length of time undisturbed."

Then I ditched that plan and went with broiling since the pan was all clean and shiny, almost like new. Otherwise, everything is the same as far as seasonings and sauce goes.

Alabama Backwoods BBQ Chicken, Take 3

adapted from Alabama Backwoods BBQ Chicken, Take 2

whole chicken cut into 8 pieces (breasts, wings, thighs, and legs), patted dry with paper towel

2 tbsp peanut oil
Seasoning rub
Sauce

Seasoning Rub
3 tbsp light brown sugar – packed
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 1/2 tsp Kosher or sea salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme

Sauce
1/2 c mayonnaise
1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp prepared horseradish
1 1/2 tsp Creole or whole grain Grey Poupon Country Dijon Mustard

1 1/2 tsp garlic, minced
1/4 tsp Kosher or sea salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper

Combine seasoning rub in a small bowl. Rub dry chicken pieces with oil. Cover the chicken pieces on all sides with the rub and marinate, covered, overnight.

Bring chicken to room temperature; preheat broiler. Meanwhile, prepare sauce and reserve.

Distribute chicken across the broiler rack skin-side up and broil 8 minutes until pieces begin to color (and in my case some blackening).

Yes, I realize there is only 7 pieces. The other boob was sacrificed for the Rosemary-Chicken Lasagna.

Flip chicken, rearranging as you see fit, and broil additional 7 minutes.


Flip chicken so skin-side is up again; broil additional 5 minutes before pouring sauce over chicken pieces.

I kicked myself when seeing how blackened the skin was -- I should've flipped and immediately poured the sauce!

Broil chicken 18 minutes and maybe 2-3 more minutes to achieve a beautiful color.



Whoa, hello! The skin was really close to the crispy I'd been trying to achieve. Not perfection, but close. The bummer was that all that time under the broiler caused the chicken boob to be a little bit on the dry side, as in overcooked. This should not be shocking as 40 minutes under a broiler is pretty long, as in about 10 minutes too long.

That does say something about the recipe though, while the white meat was overcooked, it still tasted good! Drums and thighs, they can take some punishment and are good 90% of the time anyway.

Take 4? Oh yeah, gonna be doing this once again. Now I have two ways of going about it, depending on whether my broiler rack and pan are clean. If the tools are clean, I'll broil skin-side up, flip, broil, flip, sauce, broil, done in 30 minutes resulting in crispy skin and ultra juicy chicken, even the boobs.

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