How to Make Chef John's Barbecued Butter Chicken
In this video, experience the perfect harmony of smoky barbecued goodness and the rich, creamy indulgence of butter chicken. Watch as Chef John marinates succulent chicken pieces in a medley of aromatic spices, yogurt, and tangy lemon juice, infusing them with incredible flavors. Then, witness the magic unfold on the grill as the tender chicken sizzles and chars, creating a tantalizing smoky aroma. Get ready to satisfy your cravings with this extraordinary fusion of barbecue and Indian cuisine.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Hello this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Barbecued Butter Chicken.
00:07 That's right I'm going to show you a buttery twist on an old classic method
00:12 for barbecuing chicken. And besides learning the recipe I'm also going to
00:17 show you how to properly cut a chicken in half, as well as I tried an
00:21 experimental step which might eliminate the most common problem people have when
00:25 they make barbecued chicken. So yes we have a lot to cover which is why we need
00:29 to get started with this very simple marinade which will start with some nice
00:33 cold fresh water, as well as some white vinegar or the vinegar of your choice. We
00:39 will also need a generous amount of Worcestershire sauce or whatever that
00:43 stuff's called. And then we'll season this up with a whole bunch of kosher
00:47 salts, some freshly ground black pepper, some paprika, and I'm using regular
00:54 because we're gonna grill this. But if you're gonna just bake it you can use
00:57 smoked. And then we'll also throw in some onion powder, some garlic powder, a
01:03 little bit of poultry seasoning, or the dried chicken friendly herbs of your
01:08 choice. And then we'll finish up with a little touch of cayenne, followed by one
01:13 of the stars of the show, a nice big hunk of butter. And no not margarine, which
01:18 some of these recipes call for. Butter is good, margarine is bad. And then what
01:23 we'll do is place our heat on medium and we'll wait until that butter is about
01:27 halfway melted, at which point we'll turn off the heat and we will whisk this
01:31 until the butter disappears. And believe it or not that's it. Once the heat's off
01:36 and that's mixed, we will simply let that cool all the way down to room temp before
01:41 we add that to whatever chicken parts we're gonna marinate, which for me is
01:44 gonna be some chicken halves. So while that's cooling, let me go ahead and show
01:49 you how I like to cut a chicken in half. And I'll start that with one optional
01:53 step, and that would be to cut the flat part of the wings off, which we can cook
01:57 separately and eat as a snack, or simply add it to the stock we're gonna make
02:01 with the bones. But either way, to cut a chicken in half, we'll want to make sure
02:05 the breast side's down and the back side's up. And then we'll take a pair of
02:09 scissors and we will find the chicken butt. And we will start our cut on one
02:14 side of that, and we will cut up the entire length of the chicken to the
02:17 front, going along one side of the spine. And then once that cut is complete, we'll
02:22 start cutting on the other side of the butt. And that is a really fast and easy
02:26 way to remove the backbone that I think is much safer and simpler than using a
02:30 knife. And then what we'll do next is kind of spread that chicken out until we
02:35 can see the center of the breastbone. And while you're doing this, don't be afraid
02:38 if you hear a bone or two snap. And then once we have that spread open enough to
02:42 see what's going on, we will cut down about a quarter inch into that cartilage,
02:46 right exactly in the center of the breastbone. And then we'll simply spread
02:50 the chicken and push up to fully expose that bone, at which point it's pretty
02:56 easy to just pull right out. And in a perfect world, the cartilage at the
03:00 bottom comes along with it. But we don't live in that world. So if the cartilage
03:04 at the bottom doesn't come out with it, we can trim that out with a knife. Or
03:08 don't do anything, just leave it in. And we can simply eat around that once it's
03:13 cooked. And then all we have to do once that's been removed is make one cut
03:17 right down the center to split this in half. And the only thing in the way will
03:21 be a small wishbone, which is why I like to give the knife a whack to go through
03:24 that. And if everything's gone according to plan, we should have two perfectly
03:29 formed chicken halves. Then we could grill just like this, but as you know
03:34 when I marinate chicken, I often like to make a few cuts into the leg and the
03:38 thigh. And then a couple very shallow cuts just through the skin on the breast.
03:42 And I feel like that helps the dark meat cook a little quicker and more evenly.
03:46 And then those shallow cuts in the breast makes the marinade get in a
03:50 little easier. And that's it. Once our chicken's prepped, we can transfer it
03:54 into a zip top bag that I have placed into a bowl in case it leaks. And then
03:59 assuming it's cooled all the way down, we'll go ahead and grab our marinade.
04:03 And we'll give it a good whisk and we'll pour it in the bag. And by the way, I'm
04:07 calling this a marinade, but it's also a brine and a mop sauce. And eventually as
04:12 you'll see, a finishing sauce. So yes, as my good friend who I've never met all
04:16 brown would call it, a multitasker. And then what we'll do is squeeze out the
04:21 air and seal that up. And we will transfer it into the fridge for a
04:25 minimum of four hours, up to overnight. And in the spirit of full disclosure, I
04:30 let mine marinate for about six. And once my chicken was marinated, I decided to
04:35 transfer it into this baking dish. Since I wanted to test an experimental
04:39 technique where we pre-bake the chicken before it hits the grill. So what we'll
04:44 do is arrange those halves skin side up. And then we'll pour in all the marinade,
04:48 hopefully more carefully than I did. But anyway, I cleaned that up. And then what
04:54 we'll do is pop this into the center of a 325 degree oven for about 35 minutes.
05:00 Or until our chicken is partially cooked and looks like this. And the whole idea
05:06 behind this is that by barbecuing a partially cooked chicken, the inside
05:10 will be able to cook through before the outside completely chars and turns black.
05:14 Which if we're being honest, is what a lot of home barbecued chicken looks like.
05:18 And then very, very important, at this point we have to finish cooking the
05:23 chicken on the grill, or we have to transfer this to a plate and refrigerate
05:27 it until we are gonna grill. And since I'm not gonna cook this for a couple
05:30 hours, that's what I did. And then equally as important, we'll want to pour off all
05:36 that marinade into a saucepan. Since we're definitely gonna want to use this
05:39 as a mop sauce, or a basting sauce, and then ultimately as a finishing sauce. And
05:44 of course to play it safe, we'll want to bring that to a boil first, even though
05:49 it's probably safe. But hey, why take any chances? Right, just because your
05:54 neighbors are nice, does not mean they won't sue you for food poisoning. And
05:58 then once we are ready to grill, we're gonna prep our coals until they're
06:02 beautifully hot and white, and not black and still on fire. And we'll place that
06:07 chicken on skin side down. And then because I don't want this to cook too
06:11 hot, I'm gonna cook this covered. And we'll adjust those vents as we see fit.
06:16 And I'll generally leave it on the skin side for about four minutes, just to get
06:21 some initial color on that side. And then we'll flip that over to the bone side,
06:25 with the skin side up. And for barbecue chicken at least, I like to do the
06:29 majority of the cooking on this side. Right, since we have all that bone and
06:34 connective tissue to protect the meat. Oh, and for the rest of the cooking time,
06:38 anytime we turn it over, we will definitely give it a generous brushing
06:42 with that sauce, formerly known as our marinade. And again, once I poured that
06:47 into the saucepan, I boiled it first. And that's it. All we have to do is cook this
06:52 until it's perfectly done. And as usual, besides just turning it, we can also
06:57 rotate that chicken around, just in case one side is hotter than the other. Oh, and
07:02 I did edit this footage, so you're not going to see every twist and turn. So if
07:06 you notice those pieces of chicken mysteriously changing positions, that's
07:09 why. And that's it. All we have to do is continue to cook this chicken until both
07:15 the breast and the leg quarter are perfectly cooked. Which, by the way, is
07:19 impossible. Which brings us to the main dilemma when cooking a half chicken. Okay,
07:25 ideally we want to get the breast to about 145 to 150 before we pull it off.
07:29 Whereas the thigh we want to get up to about 175. And if those two pieces are
07:34 attached, like they are here, you cannot really do both. Which is why I almost
07:39 always separate the breast from the leg section. But growing up, Firehouse grilled
07:44 chicken was always grilled as a whole half. And what would usually happen is
07:49 they would split the difference, and the breast would be slightly overcooked, and
07:52 the leg would be slightly undercooked. But nobody cared because it was really
07:56 flavorful. And you were outside on a picnic table eating salt potatoes with
08:00 it, and coleslaw, and macaroni salad. And there would be beer and soda, and
08:05 everybody was happy. So to summarize, as long as it was cooked, we were not super
08:10 particular. So because I wanted that appearance from my childhood, I did
08:14 leave these halves in one piece. But if you do want perfectly cooked chicken
08:18 from both pieces, you will have to separate this and pull that breast off a
08:22 little sooner. Oh, and if you can, try to buy a grill where the grates are the
08:28 same distance apart as the average size of a chicken foot, so that that will get
08:32 stuck in and you won't be able to move it. But kidding aside, I'm glad that
08:38 happened, because when you see that leg quarter kind of start to pull away from
08:41 the body, and it sort of looks like it's separating, you know you're getting close
08:46 to this being cooked through. Since that means those connective tissues are
08:49 breaking down. And as far as our pre-baking the chicken first experiment
08:53 went, I think I'm a fan. Since if we hadn't done that, this chicken would have
08:58 been over those coals for an extra 20 minutes or so. Which possibly for your
09:02 less than expert home griller, might be the difference between golden brown skin
09:06 and golden black skin. And then once we're back inside with our cooked
09:10 chicken, we'll go ahead and brush over more of that sauce. And then I garnish
09:15 that with some homegrown grilled carrots, and for some reason a piece of speckled
09:19 lettuce. Since I do have to take a few contractually obligated pictures, so I
09:24 did a few of those before plating up. And I spooned over some more of that
09:29 beautifully buttery sauce. And no, that lettuce did not make the plate. But
09:34 anyway, I went ahead and grabbed a fork knife and dug in. And that my friends is
09:39 a truly great all-american barbecued chicken. Just very, very flavorful. And
09:44 even though that breast meat was technically overcooked by a little bit,
09:48 on purpose, because I wanted to do the whole half, it was not dry and it was
09:53 extremely enjoyable. Alright, moist is great, and if we want moist we have to
09:58 cook that separately. But for something like this, presented in this format, I'm
10:03 fine with it just being not dry. And this wasn't. And by the way, since I almost
10:08 never eat the whole half of chicken, I'll usually start with the breast and then
10:12 I'll reheat the leg for another meal. Which works out perfectly, since we can
10:17 cook that longer without it being overcooked. But of course, having said
10:21 that, I'm definitely gonna taste a piece of the dark meat, which was as equally
10:24 flavorful and delicious. And these types of marinades, made popular by decades of
10:30 firehouse fundraisers, are usually done with vinegar, spices, and oil. But here, by
10:35 using butter instead of oil, we're getting something that's a little richer,
10:39 a little more interesting. And as long as you don't completely incinerate the skin,
10:43 I think you are really gonna enjoy that flavor profile. Oh, and besides using butter
10:48 instead of oil in this, the other change you could make to this vintage recipe
10:52 would be to change the spices and seasonings you put in the marinade. And
10:56 by using the exact same technique, you could do a Mediterranean spin, or a
11:00 Middle Eastern spin, or a Southeast Asian spin, or a South American spin. I mean you
11:06 guys are after all the weekends of your barbecued butter chickens. And you go
11:10 ahead and add anything you want to that magic potion we use to marinate this, and
11:14 then brush on it, and then sauce it. So this is absolutely something you could
11:18 customize to your tastes. But anyway, no matter what you toss in, I absolutely
11:23 love the taste and the technique, and I really do hope you give this a try soon.
11:28 So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written
11:33 recipe, and much more info as usual. And as always, enjoy!
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