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Dry Rubbed Barbecue Chicken. with fresh herbs on a white plate

Dry Rubbed Barbecue Chicken

Dry Rubbed Barbecue Chicken - no sauce is necessary to achieve great barbecue flavour, just a perfect blend of spices and herbs which complements the chicken beautifully.

Course Barbecue and Grilling, Dinner
Cuisine North American
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Servings 4 servings
Calories 389 kcal
Author Barry C. Parsons

Ingredients

  • One whole chicken cut in two halves or in pieces. Bone-in breasts or legs also work well.

For the Smoky Barbeque Chicken Dry Rub

  • 3 tbsp paprika
  • 2 tbsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 3 tbsp kosher salt
  • 1 tbsp powdered ginger
  • 1 tbsp chipotle powder
  • 3 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp black pepper
  • 1 tbsp ground thyme
  • 2 tbsp ground sage or poultry seasoning
  • 2 tbsp dry mustard powder
  • 2 tbsp garlic powder
  • 3 tbsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 2 tsp crushed or ground fennel see

Instructions

  1. Wash and trim the chicken of excess skin and fat and pat dry with paper towels.
  2. Mix together all of the ingredients for the dry rub well and store any unused dry rub in an airtight container in a cool place or in the freezer. Makes about 2 cups dry rub.
  3. Sprinkle the dry rub liberally all over the surface of the chicken and rub in well to make good contact.
  4. Place in a large Ziploc bag/s and leave in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or overnight.
  5. Grill or slow barbeque the chicken as instructed in the NOTES below. This chicken is still excellent without wood smoking.
  6. Open roasting this chicken in the oven at 350 degrees on a wire rack is also terrific and a welcome reminder of summer when grilling season is long past.
  7. However you choose to cook this chicken, use a meat thermometer to ensure that it fully cooked to an internal temperature of 175-180 degrees F. Let the chicken pieces rest for a few minutes off the heat before serving.

Recipe Notes

The spice mix in this recipe will make far more than it takes to prepare one chicken. I keep mine in a mason jar to use for several meals.

  1. If you are using your gas grill to slow barbeque your chicken, place the meat on one side of the grill and use the burner or burners on the opposite side so that it is not directly over heat.
  2. Regulate the gas to keep the temperature at about 300-325 degrees for slow barbecued flavor. The same technique can also be used with a charcoal grill, just keep the charcoal on one side and the meat on the opposite side.
  3. You can add smoke flavor by soaking hardwood chips like mesquite, apple, cherry or hickory in warm water for about a half hour.
  4. A couple of handfuls will do. Wrap the soaked wood chips in a double layer of heavy duty aluminum foil and poke only two holes in the foil, one at either end to allow the smoke to escape.
  5. On a gas grill,I place the foil packets in a vegetable grill pan so that the packet is not sitting directly on the gas burner. On a charcoal grill, simply toss the packet directly onto the hot coals.
  6. You can add more soaked wood chip packets as they burn out, it all depends on how much smoke favor you wish to add.
  7. One or two of these packets should be enough for chicken, you don't want it to take on too much smoke flavor and interfere with the flavor of the meat.