sudsandswine
Quintessential Chatty Farker
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2012
- Location
- Kansas City
I caught an episode of Man Fire Food where they visited some Alabama BBQ joints, including Big Bob Gibson's. Chris Lilly and the host of the show walked through the chicken cooking process for the famous "Alabama white sauce chicken". I'd done this recipe quite a few years ago and remember liking it, but after seeing it in action I got a hankering for it again.
I started off by spatchcocking one of Costco's new "air chilled" whole chickens. I've been pretty happy cooking these birds since they started carrying them, it seems like they're targeting the "Smart Chicken" fresh never frozen buyer. The price is right too - I think they're like $1/lb or so? I deviated from the Big Bob Gibson's recipe by dry brining in advance using coarse sea salt, then I popped it into the chamber vac and sealed it for what ended up being several days.
I setup my Primo XL with the charcoal divider for an indirect cook running at 300*. B&B lump charcoal and a regular application of pecan wood chips. At Big Bob Gibson's they salt the chickens right before they hit the cooker, but since I dry brined mine I just patted it dry and put it on the grate breast up, legs towards the heat.
About 2/3's the way through the cook, I brushed on a healthy application of vegetable oil all over the skin, flipped the bird over, and then did the same to the underside. Big Bob's gives theirs a dunk in some sort of oil...they didn't say in the show, my WAG would be peanut oil or something like that, but I didn't feel like lugging my big ol jug of it out of the basement to brush one chicken so I stuck with vegetable oil. After the oil was applied, I gave it a generous sprinkling of coarse black pepper.
Once the internal temp was closing in on my target I flipped it breast side up, applied some more black pepper to the skin, and cooked for about 15 more minutes. The skin was nice and crispy at this point. I pulled the bird off the grill and put it on a cooling rack on top of a pan, let it cool for a few minutes, and then mopped on a couple coatings of the white sauce.
Turned out pretty tasty :thumb: basting the bird in oil on the last leg of the cook did seem to have a good effect. The white sauce is basically mayonnaise, white vinegar, apple juice, horseradish, lemon juice, and salt/pepper/cayenne. It was a nice change of pace. Someday I'd like to try the real thing to see how mine stacked up. :clap2:
I started off by spatchcocking one of Costco's new "air chilled" whole chickens. I've been pretty happy cooking these birds since they started carrying them, it seems like they're targeting the "Smart Chicken" fresh never frozen buyer. The price is right too - I think they're like $1/lb or so? I deviated from the Big Bob Gibson's recipe by dry brining in advance using coarse sea salt, then I popped it into the chamber vac and sealed it for what ended up being several days.
I setup my Primo XL with the charcoal divider for an indirect cook running at 300*. B&B lump charcoal and a regular application of pecan wood chips. At Big Bob Gibson's they salt the chickens right before they hit the cooker, but since I dry brined mine I just patted it dry and put it on the grate breast up, legs towards the heat.
About 2/3's the way through the cook, I brushed on a healthy application of vegetable oil all over the skin, flipped the bird over, and then did the same to the underside. Big Bob's gives theirs a dunk in some sort of oil...they didn't say in the show, my WAG would be peanut oil or something like that, but I didn't feel like lugging my big ol jug of it out of the basement to brush one chicken so I stuck with vegetable oil. After the oil was applied, I gave it a generous sprinkling of coarse black pepper.
Once the internal temp was closing in on my target I flipped it breast side up, applied some more black pepper to the skin, and cooked for about 15 more minutes. The skin was nice and crispy at this point. I pulled the bird off the grill and put it on a cooling rack on top of a pan, let it cool for a few minutes, and then mopped on a couple coatings of the white sauce.
Turned out pretty tasty :thumb: basting the bird in oil on the last leg of the cook did seem to have a good effect. The white sauce is basically mayonnaise, white vinegar, apple juice, horseradish, lemon juice, and salt/pepper/cayenne. It was a nice change of pace. Someday I'd like to try the real thing to see how mine stacked up. :clap2:
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