 | | Chef Mario Batali (center) knows cooking and eating well is half the fun of NASCAR tailgating! Credit: Contributed photo |
By Mario Batali, Special to NASCAR.COM
June 7, 2006
10:22 AM EDT (14:22 GMT)
Pretty much anyone who can tell time and grip a pair of tongs can grill a steak. But chicken is a whole different ballgame. It's like drivers who are used to the oval suddenly having to adjust to a road course. They need to down shift, use their breaks, turn their wheel to the right. Barbecuing chicken requires a lot more diverse grilling skills. With steak you just follow the mantra of "turn it before you burn it." But with chicken you need to give individual attention to each piece of chicken. Otherwise you'll wind up with a platter of half•burnt and half•raw meat, which is not only unappetizing but unsafe to eat. Here are some tips to help you grill succulent chicken with a high degree of success:  | | |  | MARIO TAILGATES | With easy recipes and clear, simple instructions, Mario Tailgates NASCAR Style is a source for tailgating for fans around the country. Included are ideas for breakfast, appetizers, main courses, desserts, and drinks, all incorporating ingredients found in almost any market.
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• You will need to keep a close eye on the grill so all the chicken cooks evenly. Ten minutes into cooking, you could easily discover two legs are on fire and, on the other side of the grill, two others barely have any color. Here's where you need to be proactive and do the obvious, which is shift the undercooked chicken to the place of greater heat and vice versa. • Always start the chicken bone side down. This will get the cooking underway, but will keep the skin, which is more prone to charring, from being burned. I always cook chicken with the skin on as the fat in the skin bastes the chicken as it cooks and picks up much more flavor from any basting sauce you might use. • Add the basting sauce toward the end of cooking. Most people are under the mistaken impression a grilling sauce is like a marinade and that the longer it is in contact with the meat, the better. But most grilling sauces burn pretty quickly and will only serve to leave your chicken charred and black, looking and tasting like a used tire -- and we all know the value of a used tire. So be patient with your basting brush and only coat the chicken during the last 7•to•10 minutes of cooking. • Always use medium to medium-high heat for barbecuing chicken. This means one even layer of charcoals on the coal grate. This will help avoid flare-ups and cook the chicken through without burning it. If you get a severe flare-up, cover the grill cover for a minute -- the lack of oxygen should put out the flames. • Always use separate plates, containers and utensils for raw and cooked chicken. Don't make the mistake of bringing the chicken to the grill on a platter and then using that same platter to bring the cooked chicken to the table. Anything that comes in contact with the raw chicken, cutting boards, knives, platters, needs to be washed well before using again. Also any marinade the raw chicken sits in should be discarded. • Dark meat takes longer to cook that white meat. This is why it's best to cook the chicken in pieces, so you can remove the breasts before they overcook while the thighs and legs are finishing up. The dark meat is done if the juice runs clear when the thigh is pierced through to the bone. But don't be afraid to just cut into a thigh to check to see if it's no longer pink -- you can always cover over the spot with some barbecue sauce. • One way to help make grilling chicken foolproof is to only cook one section of the chicken. That way all the pieces will be done at the same time, making your grilling job that much easier. If you are going to do this, I heartily recommend cooking chicken thighs, as they have, for me, the most flavor and because they are a little fattier than breasts, stand up better to the heat of the grill. Here's a recipe that may seem a little exotic at first, but once you realize how much flavor this combination of ingredients has, it'll be in heavy rotation on your grill playlist. When Miami's Homestead Speedway opened in 1995, it naturally attracted a lot of Hispanic racing fans. It's not unlikely, then, to see something like this chicken dish sizzling on the Homestead grills. Serves 4 Marinade
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
- 4 scallions, green parts only, chopped
- 8 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
- 1 1/2cup orange juice, preferably freshly squeezed
- 1/2 cup lime juice
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon hot sauce
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 12 chicken thighs • Put all the ingredients for the marinade in a blender and puree until just smooth. | | ALSO | |
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• Place the chicken thighs in a resealable freezer bag. Pour in half the marinade, making sure the thighs are coated on all sides and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 4, but no more. Reserve the other half of the marinade to mop the chicken while grilling. • Remove the chicken thighs from the marinade and reserve. Grill the thighs over a medium-hot fire for 35 to 40 minutes. During the last 10 minutes, turn them frequently to avoid excessive charring and mop regularly with the reserved marinade . • Serve with the grapefruit mojo on the side. (see recipe below) Grapefruit Mojo Mojo is like a Cuban vinaigrette -- there are many variations and it accompanies just about anything. - 1/3 cup olive oil
- 8 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1/3 cup fresh grapefruit juice
- 1/3 cup fresh lime juice
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon salt • Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and rosemary and cook for 30 seconds. Add the remaining ingredients, being careful as the oil may splatter. • Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool. • Transfer to a container, cover, and refrigerate for up to 3 days. One sure way to produce perfect barbecued chicken is to cook it off the heat, which is actually closer to smoking than to grilling. This allows the chicken to cook through and pick up the wonderful flavor of the barbecue without the effort of being attentive to the grill. This process takes a little more time, but it's much less labor intensive, requiring only the addition of a few coals and some packets of wood chips. Here's a recipe for cooking chicken with this method. It's also got a killer barbecue sauce recipe, which is the perfect accompaniment to chicken on the grill. If you need to put more half-chickens on the grill, just overlap them slightly. Serves 4 For the rub
- 2 tablespoon paprika
- 2 tablespoons garlic salt
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 whole chickens, 4 to 5 pounds each
- 2 cups Mario's Barbecue sauce (see below) • In a small bowl, combine the ingredients for the rub. • Cut the chickens in half and remove the back from both sides. Rub the chickens all over with the spice rub and refrigerate until ready to cook or up to 4 hours • At least one hour before grilling, soak the wood chips in water. • Drain the wood chips. Arrange enough hot coals for a medium fire around on one side of the grill in as compact a pile as possible. Place a drip half-filled with water on the grate opposite the coals. Place 1/2 the soaked wood chips on the hot coals. Arrange the half-chickens on the grill rack directly over the pan. • Cover the grill with the vent positioned over the chicken. Smoke for 40 minutes, adding more wood chips after 20 minutes. • Remove the chickens and place each half on a sheet of aluminum foil. Mop with some barbecue sauce and fold to seal inside a foil envelope. • Return the foil-wrapped chicken to the cool side of the grill. Add a few more coals to the fire. Cover the grill and cook for 20 minutes more. The chicken will be juicy and moist when the foil is removed. Serve with more barbecue sauce. Mario's Barbecue Sauce The Roush/Yates team is known for their ability to build some of the best engines in racing. This sauce requires the same kind of attention to detail, but it's definitely worth the effort. Makes 3 cups - 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 cups ketchup
- 3/4 cup orange juice
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tablespoons mustard
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon Tabasco or other hot sauce
- Pinch cinnamon
- Pinch ground cloves • Mix all the ingredients together in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. • Let cool and refrigerate for up to 1 week. Mario Batali is a renowned chef, restauranteur, television personality, and author of several cookbooks, including Mario Tailgates NASCAR Style, which is now available from Sporting News. Click here to buy the book. | 
