Shaw's Chicken, BBQ

Here was my experiment with Shaw's 1.49/lb chicken. (Price chopper is .99/lb). First of all, I wonder where these come from. I bet they get them in bulk from Tyson's or Perdue and package them for resale under their brand. Then again, they are pinker (less yellow) than your average Tyson bird, the flavor seemed better and the skin was dirtier than I remember those Big-Box Poultry chickens being. The store-brand chickens from Shaw's and Price Chopper have that in common: the outside of the skin is kind of grungy.

Anyway, the rub was a Jerk-inspired deal, amped down to meet the needs of the two-year-old palate:

3 T Dark Brown Sugar
1 T Thyme
1 T Whole Allspice
1 t Kosher Salt
4 Cloves Garlic
2/7 White Onion (Thinly Sliced)
Black Pepper
1 T Honey
a little water

whatever didn't make it to the marinade got subsumed into the mop sauce, your basic Ketchup/Vinegar/Liquid Smoke deal. That sauce got kind of burned off, but it smelled awesome.

I was trying to be more efficient with the coals this time, and I ended up making the fire too small and not hot enough. So the indirect grilling did not work as well as I had been hoping and I had to throw them on the fire at the end to kind of speed up the process, but by that time it was totally dark outside and I couldn't really see what I was doing, even with a flashlight. For my money, char on the outside and some pink on the inside is the ideal state for barbecue chicken. That said, this may have turned out a little TOO ideal in places.

For next time: Bigger fire, start before the sun is setting, sauce much later in the process.