Nothing ruins a great meal more than overcooked, dry chicken lacking any flavor leaving your brain feeling like you are simply licking the sands of the Sahara Desert like some fool. Well, my friends, today I am going to provide the simple solution to preventing such a chicken catastrophe and leave you and your guests amazed by the simplicity and flavorful chicken meal of dreams! Despite rising meat inflation and lack of availability at the market, chicken has managed to stay under the radar and remain relatively cheap and plentiful during these trying times...hallelujah! Now I am definitely impartial and severely biased when I say how good this chicken really is, but take a few minutes to check out the recipe and try The Best Damn Grilled Chicken of your life....Let's get cooking!
Right from the get go I will tell you the secret to this juicy, flavorful chicken lies in the brine/marinade. Making things even better, the same base brine works well for breaded and fried chicken too so you don't have to limit yourself to grilled chicken, but honestly save yourself some prep time and carbs and enjoy this as is opposed to breading and frying. Or make a batch of each....it's okay to be a glutton when the food tastes this good! Anyway, I digress, so let's get that brine started with buttermilk, pickle juice, and hot sauce. Buttermilk is fairly self explanatory so no need to get into that, but the pickle juice is probably something you are not used to using at home. Even though it is no longer a major secret, many big name chicken restaurants rely on pickle juice to not only tenderize the chicken, but also bring a punch of flavor and umami so good your mouth won't even know what hit it. Any standard juice will work from that jar of pickles in your fridge, but try and plan ahead and save it after you finish the pickles themselves so they stay tasty in their own right. Now when it comes to the hot sauce, feel free to use your favorite vinegar-based sauce. Franks Red Hot is a great choice, and available just about everywhere, but don't rule out Cholula, Tabasco, Texas Pete's, and other similar mild hot sauces when you make your brine. Otherwise, it isn't rocket science so combine the three liquids and mix them well.
Before you go ahead and add your chicken, be sure to season it well on all sides with some good seasoning salt. You can be extra liberal with it since most will end up washed off the chicken itself and remain in the brine, but it's important to flavor the chicken every step of the way so throw on a good coating now and save a bit for the grilling process later.
Now add the chicken leg quarters to a large ziplock bag or sealable container and combine with the brining solution. As you can see, my leg quarters were monsters so I ended up splitting everything into a couple bags, but the overall ratio and whatnot remains the same. Bags are nice for this brining step so you can actually get away with a little less solution compared to using a bowl or container where the leg quarters will need to be completely submerged. You can just turn the bags a couple times while they brine to make sure everything stays coated and covered.
Let the chicken soak up all that amazing flavor at least 8 hours, but do yourself a favor and let it brine overnight for maximum effect. When grilling time does finally roll around, pull the chicken from the brine and lay it on the grill with the meaty side facing up. You don't have to pat it dry or do anything special, just place it on the grill. Go ahead and toss a little more seasoning salt back on everything as well and let it cook over medium heat for about 30 minutes.
Once your chicken has essentially cooked and the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees or so, crank up the heat and flip the leg quarters to give a nice sear to the top meaty side for 10 minutes. This will not only finish cooking these dark meat pieces and get them up to 175 degrees, but also leave some nice grill marks for you Instagram foodies and wannabe Grill Gods! Also, who doesn't want that crispy skin when it is all said and done? Believe it or not, 175 degrees is what you want for dark meat as opposed to 165 for white meat. It is not going to dry out so don't worry and let the grill make it pretty!
And just like that you have made The Best Damn Grilled Chicken! The best part about this main course is that you can serve it up with almost anything. I made some ghetto boxed Cheetos Mac N Cheese for the kiddo and these Garlic Herb Roasted Potatoes for everyone else. If you happen to be somewhat Satanic and prefer white meat, the brine will definitely help keep chicken breasts juicy and tender, but leg quarters are cheap and easy so why ruin such a perfectly good thing? Make it for yourself and let me know what you think...is it truly the Best Damn Grilled Chicken or can you do better? As for you fried chicken people, brine it the same overnight then pat dry before breading the next day. You are own your own after that. As always, get in the kitchen and make something delicious and amazing....just keep cooking!
BEST DAMN GRILLED CHICKEN
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