One taste and you’ll agree: Barbecued Dry Rubbed Chicken Is The Best Grilled Chicken Ever.
It’s truly incredible chicken. Rubbing meat with spices is an excellent way to season meat for the grill. But then you miss out on the sticky, savory glaze that screams ‘barbecue’. Basting your meat with barbecue sauce gives you that great glaze and sticky fingers, but the glaze doesn’t have time to really penetrate and season the meat. With this recipe you get the best of both worlds! It’s mmm mmm good, and I don’t think I’ll ever buy a bottle of store bought barbecue sauce again.
Grilling Takes Practice, Here’s what I’ve learned about using Charcoal and Gas.
Back in the day whenever I tried grilling, epic fails resulted every time. I have stomped and thrown fits and seriously wanted to throw our grill on some train tracks somewhere. I would follow the recipe instructions exactly~ and end up with black lumps of coal for food. So for the longest time I relegated all the grilling to my husband. Eventually I graduated from the school of hard knocks and ended up with a whole plate full of YUM! Like anything else, it just took practice :0)
Don’t make these Charcoal Grilling mistakes:
- Learning to use a chimney starter really helped me out, like this Weber Charcoal Chimney Starter from Amazon.
- Once your coals are hot and placed inside your grill, move them to one side if you need indirect heat to cook your chicken (like for this recipe).
- Scrape your grill clean and brush it with oil -best done with a paper towel soaked in vegetable oil and held with tongs.
- Cuts of meat with bone included (like this recipe for Barbecued Dry Rubbed Chicken) must be cooked over INDIRECT HEAT, so place these types of meat on the grill over a spot with no coals.
- Boneless meats can be cooked over DIRECT HEAT, so you don’t need to worry about piling your hot charcoals to one side, place meats on the grate right over hot coals.
- Use a simple food thermometer to check the temp of your meats- it’s foolproof.
Don’t Make these Gas Grilling Mistakes:
- Preheat your grill super hot and clean off the char left behind with a metal grill brush. Then turn the burners to low and wait a few minutes for the temps to come down before cooking your food.
- Once the grill has reached cooking temps, (like around 350° F) dip a paper towel in oil, grab it with some tongs and oil your grill so your food doesn’t stick.
- Use a food thermometer to check your meats; repeat from above- it’s failproof!
- Stay by the grill and check your food. Don’t even multi-task; just don’t.
Every delicious bite is well worth the effort to learn your grill and have Barbecued Dry-Rubbed Chicken on your dinner plate tonight! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. Please let me know how it goes, I always love feedback! Tag me on instagram @TheGoldilocksKitchen if you make this incredible recipe. I love to see!
This recipe inspired from one found on Cooks Country.
Barbecue Dry Rubbed Chicken
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hours 25 minutes
- Yield: 7-10 pieces of chicken 1x
Description
The magic of this incredibly delicious chicken is that the dry rub used to season the meat, also melts into a barbecue glaze on the grill.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces (drumstick and thigh work best)
Instructions
-
Combine all ingredients for the dry rub and divide evenly in two separate bowls. Set one bowl aside. Prepare the chicken by blotting dry with paper towels. Rub one bowl of seasoning under the skin and all over chicken pieces. Cover and refrigerate seasoned chicken pieces for at least 30 minutes or up to an hour.
-
Preheat your grill and scrape clean. When the grill has reached a temperature of about 325 degrees, oil the grate with a paper towel dipped in vegetable oil gripped with tongs.
-
Place the chicken skin side down and grill over indirect heat (switch the burners off under the chicken if using gas) until the skin is crisp and well browned, turning occasionally. This should take about 15 to 20 minutes.
-
Dredge the skin side of the chicken pieces in the second bowl of seasoning and return to the grill, skin side up. Grill, covered, until the internal temperature has reached 160 degrees for white meat, and 165 for dark, about 5 to 10 minutes more. The rub should melt and turn into a deeply colored glaze on the chicken. Remove, tent with foil for about 5 minutes, and serve.
Notes
Bone in, skin on chicken breast can also be used, just slice them in half crosswise with a sharp knife and proceed with the recipe as written.
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 piece of chicken
- Calories: 275
- Sugar: 2.8 g
- Sodium: 304 mg
- Fat: 21.7 g
- Saturated Fat: 7.3 g
- Carbohydrates: 3.4 g
- Protein: 17 g
- Cholesterol: 98 mg
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I want to bake this, would that still be good?
I think so…try it and let me know :0)
I guess it cannot be bad! lol I will let you know!! 🙂 If it doesn’t
come out right, I’ll throw some baby rays on it! ahahaha
Do you think this would work on boneless, skinless breast, using the same two step technique? I’m not a fan of the skin. Or would they dry out?
I have not tried the rub with boneless skinless chicken breast myself. It probably will be drier that dark meat, but how much I can only guess. Try it and leave a comment- I bet others have had the same question! Now you’ve got me curious and I may have to try it myself :0)
Gas and charcoal grills operate in a very different way indeed, but the taste is a bit different as well. I would always go for charcoal grill to get the best taste 🙂
We used to have a charcoal grill and we loved it too! Thanks for sharing the tip Sofie :0)
Just made this tonight. Didn’t put as much pepper only used 1/2 tsp and cayenne just little more then an eighth of a tsp. It turned out great ! Only thing I would add would be some garlic powder. I might double the rub as well to really marinade it well cause it tastes so good. Other then that perfect! Indirect heat worked great at the very end we crisped up the skin for a couple minutes. I will definitely make it again !!!
Thanks for the fantastic feedback Pam! Great info~ I usually double the rub too (because we LOVE the taste so much). Glad to hear how well you enjoyed it :0)
Ooh! This looks so refreshing and DELICIOUS! I can’t wait to try it!
Thanks Amanda! You will not be disappointed, it’s extremely delicious :0)
I rub the skinless breast down in olive oil, put the rub on and bake it at 400 degrees for 45 minutes turned out great
Good to know; thanks for sharing Jim!
I love love love this chicken!!! It is delicious! I am doing this food for my 5th grade food campaign. I bet I will win it!
★★★★★
That is awesome Shiloh- Good luck!
Excellent recipe! Everyone loved it!
★★★★★
Do you use smoked paprika or sweet? Thanks!
Hi Poppy, Either one will work in this recipe, but I like smoked the best!
My hubby loved these and asked for it again! We will definitely be repeating this in my house!
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