June 30, 2011

Recipe of the week: Epic BBQ chicken

I've been cooking for 7 years now and believe it or not, the very first thing I learned how to cook was BBQ chicken.


I remember being BROKE that day! However, the good thing was, I had a whole bunch of meat in my freezer and a whole bunch of spices, food, sauces etc. in my kitchen. Only problem was: I couldn't cook! I kept ordering out, or preparing easy stuff like eggs, hot dogs and anything you just have to put in the oven or microwave. I was hungry and totally craving BBQ chicken from St-Hubert but I had ZERO DOLLARS (well until the Thursday of that week). I looked in my freezer and saw all these pieces of chicken: I took em' out, let em' unfreeze and when they seemed ready to bee cooked, I looked at them for like 10 minutes just wondering "How the f*** am I gonna do this????" My roomate at the time came up to me and said "Hey I know how to make chicken! You want me to show you?" I just gave her the side eye and replied: in a momma's girl baby voice "But I want my chicken like my mom makes it". So I swallowed my pride, admitted to myself that my mother was right for telling me "You're gonna have to learn how to cook someday", and called her immediately. She gave me instructions that were so simple that I wondered why I hadn't called her earlier. She told me: Clean your chicken, spice your chicken, and boil it before putting it in the oven with the bbq sauce. What takes me about 30 minutes to do now took me about 2h the first time, but that's okay :). My first BBQ chicken was actually pretty good, although it was lacking a little bit in the spices department. You get better with practice though, rest assured. The satisfaction you get when you eat your own food is amazing, and I've been cooking all the time ever since (you guys know that already!).

Over the years, I've highly improved my chicken makin' skills. I make curry chicken, chicken parmigiana, creole chicken, grilled chicken and more. But I still find that TO THIS DAY, the chicken that makes people go absolutely nuts is my BBQ chicken! I make it with lots of flavours: Wine, thyme, garlic etc. and last night, Jeanne was like "It's so good, it tastes like ribs. But it's CHICKEN" (Btw, follow her on twitter @janehedge). Here's the recipe! It's actually pretty easy to make, doesn't cost much and is and very, very tasty.

You will need:

-Chicken (I used thighs and drumsticks)
-Chicken broth (or water, if you have no broth)
-White wine (optional, but I find it adds great taste!)
-Thyme branches (don't be shy, put at least 5 or 6)
-Two garlic cloves, thinly chopped
-A medium sized onion
-Spices of your choice (I used Adobo, salt, pepper and a bit of chicken spices)
-BBQ sauce (I usually mix like 3 different kinds with a bit of honey, yummyyyy)

SO!

-Clean your
 chicken! Remove excess fat, nasty stuff etc. If you buy your chicken at the right butcher, the cleaning is way easier. However, if you buy your chicken in places like Super C or Maxi, expect a good 15 minutes to remove all the excess crap #imjustsayin

-Put the chicken in a large pot. A little trick is, before adding the spices and the broth, make little holes in it with a sharp knife: That way, the spices and flavours will go directly IN the chicken, not just at the surface. Funny thing is, it looks like I'm stabbing the chicken when I'm making the holes hehe.

-Spice your chicken all around then add the thyme branches and enough broth and wine to cover the chicken.

-Cover and boil on medium until the chicken is cooked (about 20 minutes), but make sure it's not TOO cooked, it should still be rather pale on the outside, but cooked inside. You don't wanna bake a chicken that's already overcooked, right? How do you know the inside of the chicken is cooked? "Stab" it, and if there is still blood gushing out, it's not cooked. This didn't sound right, but you get the point.

-When the chicken is cooked, don't eat it yet! You might be tempted to eat it now, because it smells soooo good, but WAIT! Another 40 minutes and your stomach will be happy.

-Put the chicken with the remaining sauce broth/sauce, thyme etc. in an oven dish. You literally just pour the whole content of the pot in the dish then add the onions and chopped garlic. Add a little bit of BBQ sauce on the chicken with a brush (or if you're like me and never have the right utensils, use the back of a spoon. Yeah...). Cover with foil paper and bake on 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

-Uncover the dish, add more BBQ sauce and put the heat on Low-Broil for another 5-10 minutes, until the top starts to brown. I personally like my top to be a little crispy, so I put it on broil for 15 minutes. It all depends on what you like homie :)

-Remove from the oven and ENJOY!!!! Last night I served it with white wine risotto (you already know my love story with this rice) and salad, but it's also great with regular rice and/or fries.

***A little extra: It's summer guys! You can do this recipe on the BBQ as well! Just boil the chicken as the recipe states and instead of putting the meat in the oven, just grill it on the BBQ with some BBQ sauce on top! In the meanwhile, you can make a yummy gravy with the remaining broth and wine: In a separate little bowl, mix one tablespoon of corn starch (or two tablespoons of flour) with two tablespoons of cold water, then add it to the broth. Turn the heat to medium and in a couple of minutes, you will see that the sauce will start to thicken :). Easy eh?***

xoxo

Sass

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