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You’ll love this succulent BBQ chicken topped with Alabama BBQ sauce. Brined so it’s juicy!
Sweet Home Alabama BBQ Chicken
A better chicken has never come off the grill!
The chicken is as juicy as can be and when you combine that with the tangy and very different Alabama BBQ sauce, his chicken really pleases.
Brining Is The Key
The secret to truly juicy chicken, no matter how you cook it, is brining.
You can use buttermilk–which makes it totally delicious. However if you don’t have any on hand, you can use what we all have on hand, and that’s water and salt.
When I use the salt water method, I also use an equal part of sugar to salt. One thing I learned after a disastrous brining experience was to carefully limit the time.
Unlike buttermilk, salt-water brining can result in chicken that is so salty, it’s inedible. My mistake was doing this overnight–so my advice is to brine for the shortest time possible in the range, lest you forget and it goes too long.
If you choose to use buttermilk, then the length of time does not matter, but if you do use buttermilk don’t add any salt!
Brush On That Sauce
The white BBQ sauce is fantastic.
If you have never tried it, you are in for a real taste treat. It’s quite different from the kind most of us are used to having. There are no tomatoes, it’s mayonnaise based and includes some horseradish.
The sauce gets an even better taste when it’s brushed on the chicken in the final stages of cooking because it will caramelize a bit. However, if you just grill the chicken and use the sauce as a dipping sauce, that’s fine too. And remember this sauce the next time you serve wings! YUM!
The Recipe
Alabama BBQ Chicken
Ingredients
- 10 assorted chicken parts I used thighs and drums
- 1/2 cup kosher salt
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 quarts water
- 1 tbsp oil
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 cup Alabama BBQ sauce
Instructions
- Mix the water, kosher salt and sugar in a large non-reactive container.
- Place chicken in the brine and refrigerate for at least 2 hours but no more than 6 hours.
- Place a wire rack on a large baking sheet. Remove chicken from the brine and pat dry with paper towels. The original recipe noted that refrigerating the chicken on the rack overnight was preferred since the surface would dry more completely. If you have fridge space and time, it’s best to do this. Otherwise let the chicken dry at room temperature for 1 hour. If you refrigerated overnight, let the chicken come to room temperature.
- Put the chicken in a large bowl and sprinkle with the cornstarch then drizzle the oil over it. Toss to coat the chicken well.
- Preheat your grill to medium-high (about 350℉).
- Place chicken on the grill skin side down and cook for 15 minutes, watching so the skin does not burn.
- Turn chicken skin side up and continue cooking for 20-30 minutes, or until juices run clear.
- Brush with Alabama BBQ sauce.
Laura @ Micro Awesome Homes says
I saw a variation of this Alabama bbq chicken, about 2 weeks ago,on another blog. I think that one had a tomato sauce instead of the typical Alabama sauce.
Laura @ Micro Awesome Homes recently posted…Hippie House Cabin Built By Hand Without Metals
Sheila says
Wow! I never knew this secret. Will definitely try brining as I have always been curious how they make chicken truly juicy.
I would love to try buttermilk and keeping in mind not to use salt.
Thank you for sharing this.
Judith Hanneman says
I had a real disaster with a salt-based brine–like forgetting it and leaving it overnight, so I generally use the buttermilk method. Much safer LOL