cooking @ home

If I had my druthers, the best way to do this recipe would be on my charcoal grill with the lid down — the perfect combination of flame and air moving all around the poultry. But that’s not the goal of this recipe. The challenge I set up for myself here was how to get a BBQ-like chicken with savory, crisp skin in the oven. (Cause not all of us are crazy enough to shovel through three feet of snow at 10 degrees F and use the outdoor grill in the winter. Or, for me the day I came up with this, it was was a 98 F day with 85% humidtiy. I’ll take the indoors with AC blasting and an oven on, then cooking by a roaring fire outside, thank you.)

This is one of those ideas that took two trys to nail down, call them version one and two. As I am known to say, you learn as much (if not more) by your mistakes. So I’m sharing it with you because like me, you’ll pick up some ideas when you run across these problems again. I certainly know I’ll be keeping these solutions in mind myself next time and at least avoid these same errors. (As always, you can feel free to skip down to the bottom and get the “unvarnished” recipe. Or take the ride with me and continue reading. Your chice.)

I knew there were going to be “technical details” when I came up with the idea for this dish. First, I wanted BBQ but with Orange and I hadn’t done anything like that before (not a biggie, just mentioning it was one element). Second was I was trying to BBQ inside, and because the pieces were large and thick, I knew I had to abandon the idea of the two-burner kitchen grill. That means grilling in the oven. (strictly speaking that’s not possible if you go by the exact meaning of the words, but I think you get the concept).

I wanted to add OJ to my sauce which make my base not so much ketchup but the orange itself, plus doing so would thin the sauce out. Second problem, getting a good crisp skin, an “eatable skin”, without charring the sauce atop it into black, burn. (When I say eatable skin, meaning I rarely eat chciken skin. But if I did it correctly even I would love it.)

And so came try numero uno with it’s mistakes and problems:

Mistake one … putting in large baking dish … for one, wasn’t exposing underside to air heat … two as it would fry, juices and fats would mix into bbq sauce … In short, I was cooking this like a chicken in a sauce dish. Why, I dunno. I had to make this it’s original intention: BBQd tasting chicken, crisp skin, in the oven. Silly me. So in version two (my second try at this the next day) I ended up removing and placing on wired grill atop baking sheet as should have

Problem one … As mentioned, the OJ made sauce too thin. (I think that’s one of the reasons I made the other error of putting it in a deep baking dish, because it would “hold” to some degree to the chicken, but not as much as I wanted, and I didn’t want a big mess.) So version one solution tried, helped a bit, some cornstarch. Cornstartch is a nice thickner which unlike flour does not require heat as an element. (Sure heat would help the thickening and did during the actual baking.) The answer I found was to reduce the sauce. More concentrated flavor and it thicken more to my liking.

Problem two: Skin did get crispy … but … could be cripsier … problem, at it’s best, would have left in any longer and bbq sauce would have burnt … how to more scripy without burning? Doing it in the casserole deep dish was the mistake. The simple answer was doing it atop the grill on sheet increased both the crispieness and let dry heat get under the poultry. One thing I did get right the first time, scoring the skin; second time I went from a few scores to around on dozen on each quarter.

Yes, I’ve done my best to ignore the option of placing it in the broiler for a quick bit at the end. Why? Too easy in one way. Too “dangerous” in another. How so? Remember, you can go from slightly crispy to burnt in as little as 20 seconds. Remember those of you who are masters of the outdoor grill this isn’t going to be 100% perfectly identical … but we’re trying for 95% or so and it gets there.

Now two challenges for you. First, see if folks don’t think you did it on the outside grill. See their eyes perk up when you tell them you did it in the oven. Second, those who love to eat chicken skin are going to think this is incredible; and while not all, some people who never eat skin, ask them to try this. I’m betting there will be one or two converts.

One last (and probably obvious observation to share) This is definitely a cost-cutter meal: cheap to buy and then you take it home and make it extra flavorful.

Roasted Orange-BBQ Chicken Leg Quarters
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

Four or five large chicken leg quarters (theighs and legs together)

mini rub:

1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tbsp chilli powder
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp paprika
1-2 tsps salt (this helps dry the skin as well as add flavor, that’s why a bit more than normal)
2 tsps pepper

sauce:

1 cup ketchup
3 tbsps worchestershire
4 tbsps honey
1 tbsps dijon (or brown)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp horseradish sauce
dash of salt
dash of pepper
1-2 tbsps lemon or lime juice (totally optional)
zest of one large orange (as much as you can get out of it)

Make many small scores through skin of top side of chicken. Mix dried ingredients and apply the rub to top of chicken; don’t neglect putting some on the under side. Put in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the BBQ sauce as listed, placing all the ingredients in a small pot. As the OJ will have thinned the sauce, reduce it down until you get to a somewhat thicker consistency (such as that of say, steak sauce).

Preheat oven to 425. Baste chicken with sauce. Place on shallow wired rack atop baking sheet and place in oven. Expect this phase to take roughly 45 minutes (depending on your oven, size of chicken, size of bones, etc.)

15 minutes into it, turn chicken over. After 15 more minutes, again turn chicken over. Lightly cover the top of chicken with more of the BBQ sauce (not too thick, we want crispy skin.)

After chicken has been in for about 40 minutes, check with internal thermometer every 5-7 minutes until temperature is 150F. At this point turn oven to highest setting (often 500, some ovens go to 525 or 550). Skip checking with thermometer for now and instead check every 5-7 minutes for color and doneness visually. You will start to have a smoky kitchen at this point, that is normal.

When you feel it looks right and is done, again check internal temp. You must achieve a minimum of 165F to safely eat chicken. So when you are between 165-175F it’s perfect. Remove from oven and let rest at least ten minutes then serve.