use real butter

Pork is king when it comes to barbecue, but barbecue is not just pork. I love a good beef brisket or a plate of barbecue chicken. I am quite particular about my barbecue chicken despite never really getting into making it before today. I cannot abide by the use of boneless, skinless chicken breasts for barbecue – ewwwww. I’ve had leathery and rubbery chicken slathered in barbecue sauce and it’s really depressing. No, what is needed is fat (skin) and juicy tenderness (bone in).

Where to start with barbecue chicken? Unfortunately, my go to book for grilling meat does not cover poultry. Chicken is always the fuzzy designate… Are you vegetarian? Well, I eat chicken and fish. I don’t eat meat. Oh that’s okay, we have chicken! It’s somewhere in the netherworld between vegetables and meat, but never really either one. I consider chicken to be meat. If it writhes when you bite into it live, it’s meat. Nevermind the flexitarians. I referenced my Dinosaur Bar-B-Que book (since their famous Que was good enough for catering Carrie’s wedding) and found a good basic recipe.

I used whole chicken legs – the thigh and drum – with bone-in and skin-on. I had a lot of leftover spice rub from my pulled pork experiment earlier in the week, so I used that on six whole organic chicken legs. Why organic? Well, I prefer organic when I can afford it and organic chicken yields a clearer and less solid fat when I make broth with it as opposed to the bright yellow solid disks of fat from conventional chicken. I think that says a lot about the health and quality of the chicken. But the other reason was that no other f#$%@%^ store in Boulder HAD whole chicken legs except for Whole Paycheck Foods.