How to Make Grilled Barbecue Chicken Thighs

Use your grill to fire up some grilled barbecue chicken thighs.

With a few new grilling techniques, you can make boring chicken thighs into a meal everyone will rave about. The right marinade and cooking method can persuade even those who aren't fans of dark meat to seek a second helping. Flavorful barbecue chicken thighs begin with a juicy injectable barbecue sauce, and are finished by searing and then moving them to indirect heat on the grill. Figure on one to two thighs per person as an average serving.

Things You'll Need

• Grill
• Charcoal briquets
• Lighter fluid
• Chicken thighs, skin-on, bone-in
• Dry chicken rub
• Barbecue sauce
• Meat injector
• Basting brush or a clean paint brush
• Hardwood pieces (maple, cherry, mequite, hickory, etc.)
• Long tongs
• Large bowl

Instructions

1. Place the barbecue sauce of your choice in a bowl. Remove the needle from your meat injector. Insert the syringe into the bowl and fill it with the sauce. Replace the needle and inject the sauce between the skin and the meat of the chicken thigh. This will create a pocket as you fill it with barbecue sauce, which helps the flavor ease into the meat, keeping it juicy and flavorful.

   If you do not have a meat injector you can use a brush. Take your finger to create a pocket just large enough for your brush and brush the sauce inside the skin.

2. Let the filled thighs rest for at least 15 minutes. If you have the time, inject the thighs the day before and let them rest in the refrigerator overnight.

3. Prepare your charcoal grill as you would normally. Before you start cooking, however, you'll pile the hot coals tightly on one end of the grill. This provides a source of indirect heat.

4. Add 1 to 2 tbsp. of cooking oil to the chicken. Gently mix the chicken to lightly coat the thighs with oil. This will help to make the skin crispy and keep the juices inside.

5. Add the chicken rub to the chicken. Be generous in the seasoning of your chicken and coat all pieces thoroughly.

6. Move the coals to one side of the grill.

7. Sear the thighs by placing them above the hot coals. Flip the thighs once they have dark-brown grill marks. Repeat on the other side. This process is fast and flames will shoot up because of the fat dripping downward.

8. Once both sides are seared, move the chicken away from the coals. Cover the grill for 25 minutes. Don't lift the lid to check the chicken because your grill is now working like an oven and when you remove the cover you will lose heat and increase your cooking time.

9. After 25 minutes, have your barbecue sauce and brush ready. Lift the grill lid and brush on an even layer of sauce on all the thighs. Flip the thighs over and brush sauce on the other side. Recover thighs and cook for another 25 minutes.

10. Take a meat thermometer and test the chicken's internal temperature. This should be 165 degrees. If you do not have a meat thermometer, take a thigh that is farthest from the heat source off the grill and cut it open. If it is pink, put it back on the grill, wait another 10 minutes and check again. Serve once they are no longer pink or have reached 165 degrees.

Tips & Warnings

• Grilled BBQ chicken thighs will take 50 - 60 minutes to cook.

• Indirect heat works like an oven so every time you remove that lid you will loose cooking heat and it will take longer to cook your chicken.

• Be sure to clean up with warm soapy water, because raw chicken contains Salmonella which can make you and your family and guest ill.

References

• Food Network; The Ultimate Barbecued Chicken; Tyler Florence
• USDA; Food Safety Education: Is It Done Yet?; June 10, 2011