He Said (1) - Texas-Style Barbecued Chicken Legs

I mentioned to my husband that we were in a bit of a grilling rut. Now that really isn't much of a problem in one sense because we are preparing tried and true grilling methods. Considering we basically like our steaks cook unseasoned so the meat itself shines and ribs are always slow barbequed, well as you can see we are in a bit of a rut. So my husband and I have come up with a bit of a way to spark up our grilling. From now until the end of August we are going to be doing a he said/she said recipe discovery. This essentially will be 6 weeks where he makes a recipe and she responds with a recipe so essentially what we should end up with 12 new recipes and out of those 12 hopefully we will find one or two that become a family favourite. I will mark each post with a he said/she said followed by a number so in the end there should be 6 of each. The first week of September I will post a poll looking for votes on what you thought was the best recipe. So plan to make each recipe and vote at the end our our little he said/she said contest for the best recipe. May the best (ahem) cook win!

Inspiration

To make the contest fair we decided all the recipes had to come from the same cookbook. Since it's summer and the main grilling season we settled on the Better Homes and Garden New Grilling Book, 2005 by Meredith Corporation. Now the rule is the recipe has to be followed as is without modification of ingredients other than the amount of added. For example if a recipe calls for ingredients A, B and C then all three ingredients must be used but can be reduced or increased if desired.

As you can see I already have a few recipes tagged with post-it notes to try. My husband on the other hand dog eared his recipe! Now that might be fine for some people but dog earing one of my books is sacriligious so he heard about it. Anyway, those are the rules and I doubt he will dog ear another one of my books. Other than that it should be a good bit of fun.

On the Grill

My husband chose the Texas-style Barbecued Chicken Legs on page 270 of the cookbook. What was very interesting about the way the chicken was cooked was a different method of creating indirect heat on the grill. We have used two methods of grilling chicken. The first applies mainly to boneless, skinless chicken breasts. The meat is grilled on indirect heat over the burner that is not turned on. The second method for skin on chicken involves par-boiling the chicken, draining then finishing on the grill. Both methods work quite nicely but are still subject to minor flare-ups. This method called for placing a tray of water over both burners set to medium heat with the chicken on the grate above. This method virtually eliminated any flare-ups! Pictured is the chicken legs as they were cooking and with the sauce.

Texas-Style Barbecued Chicken Legs
source: Meredith Corporation, Better Homes and Garden New Grilling Book, 2005. Pp. 270

½ cup finely chopped onion
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp chili powder
¼ tsp ground sage
1 tbsp butter
½ cup ketchup
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp salt
½ tsp hot pepper sauce
¼ tsp cracked black pepper
6 whole chicken legs

Prepare onion and garlic. Place onion, garlic, chili powder, sage and butter in saucepan. Cook until onion is tender. Stir in remaining ingredients except for chicken. Brig to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer uncovered for 5 minutes then remove from heat. Heat the grill to medium. Place the chicken legs bone sides up on grill over the filled drip pan. Grill for 50 to 60 minutes until the chicken is no longer pink, turning once halfway through the grilling. Brush with the sauce during the last 10 minutes of grilling. Heat remaining sauce until bubbly to spoon over the chicken.

Texas-Style Barbecued Chicken Legs

Pictured is the Texas-style Barbecued Chicken Legs my husband made. I paired them with Arborio rice cooked in homemade chicken stock with a little butter and tomato slices on a bed of Chinese mustard and Grand Rapids lettuce fresh cut from the garden. I garnished the tomato slices with Vadalia onion wedges.

I really have to say this is one of the best barbequed chicken I've tasted! The method of grilling virtually eliminated any charring yet the chicken was moist, tender and flavourful. Adding to the perfectly grilled chicken was the wonderfully flavoured sauce. Now this sauce is really quite tasty and it is one that I will be modifying for canning. The sauce was amazing with a deep, rich flavour! My husband made two changes reducing the chili powder and hot sauce by half. The sauce was very easy to make using ingredients most cooks would have on hand.