Grilled Chicken on the Weber

King Henry and his Weber.

I want there to be no peasant in my kingdom so poor that he cannot have a chicken in his Weber every Sunday.

King Henry IV (fabricated slightly)

My wife and I throw a lot of dinner parties. Indeed, it is our favorite way to spend an evening. While guest lists, menus, and dinner topics vary, one question seems to consistently find its way into the conversation --- what would your final meal be? 

Given that I adore just about everything if it is cooked right, my answer sometimes surprises dinner guests. It is simply roast chicken on a grill. No beer cans. No rotisserie. Just a trusty piece of Americana called the Weber Charcoal Barbecue. 

A few years ago, I bought my dream barbecue: The Weber Performer. It combines the ease of gas with the results of charcoal. Oh, how I love it. However, you do not need the Performer for this recipe. Any old Weber will do.

A Word About Chicken

The Weber Performer. Proof there is a God.

 An organic free range chicken from Trader Joe’s is our favorite choice. Encouraged to roam about spacious grounds and fed only vegetarian corn and soy based feed, these chickens are free of antibiotics and animal by products. I usually settle on a four pound bird. If you buy your chicken in a store with a meat department,have your meat cutter butterfly the bird. If not, it is easy to do at home.Butterflying is simply removing the backbone and the breastbone, leaving the chicken flattened. A butterflied chicken cooks evenly and it is flatter on the grill.

Spice Rub

There is nothing wrong with marinades early and sauces later to slather on to your chicken, but for this recipe I am going to stress the wonders of various spice rubs. We order most of our  spices and rubs from a company in the Midwest called Penzeys. They offer a rich and varied selection of so many tantalizing spices and rubs that it would take a lifetime to get through them all. The type of rub you use should be guided by what else you are serving that evening. For this particular meal, we decided on a Middle Eastern inspired menu of humus, homemade naan, baba ghanoush, and roasted asparagus. The Turkish rub sounded like the perfect choice. For clarity purposes, I would like to stick to just the chicken cooking information and not the sides.

Seasoned and butterflied.

Preparation

After cleaning the bird, and wiping it down, drizzle a little bit of olive oil to the skin and rub it in. Next add a generous amount of the Turkish rub to the bird, making sure to coat it evenly. After adding the rub, I like to wrap the chicken with plastic bags and pop it in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

If you know the terms in the Weber lexicon, prepare your grill for indirect heat. Simply put,after your coals are lit, divide them evenly on the two sides of your grill.Make sure your grill is clean, and that all of the cooking vents are open.Sometimes, just before I place the grill down I will run an olive oil soaked paper towel across the cooking surface to prevent the skin from sticking. Since I don’t use the juices and fat that drip during the cooking process, I rarely use a drip pan. You can make a little tray out of aluminum foil to place in the middle; it will save you some cleanup time the next day.

Breast side down, indirect heat.

Cooking Time

Once the coals have been evenly divided and the cooking grate has been put in place, close the lid and wait for 3 to 5 minutes. My barbeque has a built in thermometer and I wait for the temperature to get to375 degrees before putting the chicken on.

The ideal roasting temperature for me is between 350 and 375 degrees. If you don’t have a built in thermometer,you just need to trust the indirect cooking method. Unless you have severely overloaded or underloaded your grill with briquets, the temperature should be in the 350 to 375 range.

At the half hour mark.

Place the chicken breast side down in the middle of the cooking surface, cover, then set a timer for exactly 30 minutes.  When the timer sounds, gently flip the bird over and roast for another half hour.

One hour seems to be the magic number for me. The internal temperature should be at 165 degrees.Remove the chicken and lightly wrap it in foil on the cutting board, and let it rest of about 10 minutes.

One hour

Take some pride in your carving skills, then lay out your perfectly cooked bird with its mahogany skin and succulent white meat on a big platter.

The great part about grilling chicken is the amazing array of options to flavor the meat. Take your time and experiment!

Grilled whole chicken with Penzey's Turkish Rub.