Want Amazing BBQ Chicken Quarters? Pick your Favorite BBQ Sauce, Rub, Glaze or Lacquer, and Enjoy some Messy Good BBQ Chicken! Serve it up with some Homemade French Fries, Coleslaw, Macaroni Salad, or Corn on the Cob to make a BBQ Platter.

Chicken

There are many ways to cook up BBQ Chicken but the key factors are below.

• Chicken cooked with an internal temp of 157 F for Breast Meat or 175 F or higher for Dark Meat
  • if using quarters be sure to clean out the internal organs
  • Skin on or removed
• BBQ Style : Dry Rubbed, Glazed, or Lacquered
• Choice of BBQ Sauce
• Choice of Cook Method (Oven, Deep Fried, Grilled, Smoked), this post covers Oven and Deep Fried for now.

Use Chicken Quarters or Chicken Legs and Thighs. Visit my post for information on How to Prep Chicken. Which will show you how to clean the internal organs from the Thigh section.

You can also choose to cook it with the skin on or removed. If you remove the skin, place it into a Ziploc bag to freeze to make rendered fat from it for other dishes.

An internal temp of 165 F is recommended for chicken, which covers both white and dark meat. Although the two differ in temps for peak juiciness due to the fat content. The 165 F recommendation is to cover both and a good medium temp. The prime internal temperature for white meat is 157 F while dark meat is 175 F.

Going over 175 F for dark meat is fine, some will cook until an internal temp higher than this. With Chicken Breast, going over 165 F will almost always result in dry meat.

Chicken Quarters are best cooked to an internal temp of 175 F or higher. This ensures that all the tendons dissolve with the peak of juiciness attained due to more fat in the dark meat. It takes a bit longer to cook Dark Meat.

Dark meat can also be made with a dry rub, cooked and stripped of the bone for a BBQ Chicken Burger. Add your choice of toppings like Onions, Tomatoes, or Coleslaw and some BBQ Sauce. Or use thin Grilled or seared Chicken Breast.

Marinated Chicken

Marinating the Chicken will introduce more flavor to the inside of the chicken, although this is optional. Use either of the below to marinate the chicken, depending on what you’re going after.

• Poultry Brine
• Fried Chicken Marinade
• Grilled Chicken Marinade

Skin on verse skinless

This is really a matter of preference and will often be a deciding factor when choosing to dry rub the chicken or not. If you remove the skin don’t throw it out. Place it into Ziploc bags and freeze to render chicken fat for other dishes.

With just a Dry Rub you typically want to leave the skin on. For Glazed or Lacquered, it’s a matter of preference. Remove the skin or leave it on.

Competition Chicken Thighs

There are countless Barbeque competitions and one of the items that are quite common is Thighs. This is actually pretty cool but does involve extra work. There is so much information just on the competition Chicken thighs alone and it’s very interesting, below is just the basics.

Remove the skin from the thighs. Trim of any fat and the side so that every piece is uniform in size. Shave off the bone knuckle, so that the chicken is the same thickness all the way across. Wrap the skin back around the thigh meat.

Optionally season the chicken before the skin is wrapped. Some will scrape the skin of any excess fat.

The Chicken is wrapped with a slight overlap on the skin and the sides tucked in. Season and cook until an internal temp of 175 F. Some go higher, up to 200 F.

Competition Barbeque Chicken is usually Glazed and then cooked again just until the glaze sets before it is served.

BBQ Chicken

There are three general categories for Barbeque Chicken. Dry Rubbed, Glazed, or Lacquered. Then there is the cooking method.

Dry Rub BBQ Chicken

Dry Rubbed Barbeque Chicken uses Barbeque Seasoning to season the chicken. Marinating is often done with this method of Barbeque Chicken and may include BBQ Sauce too.

There is no hard rule here. Season the poultry with Barbeque Spice and cook it any way you’d like, with/without it being glazed or lacquered.

Glazed BBQ Chicken

Glazed BBQ Chicken uses a thinner BBQ Sauce. Applied to the chicken to coat it or the chicken is dunked in the thinned-out BBQ Sauce. It results in a lightly sauced or coated Chicken. Cook more until the Glaze sets or brush with the thinned out BBQ sauce and set aside to rest.

Glazed chicken is often paired with a BBQ Rub and the BBQ sauce is usually not caramelized.

For Glazed BBQ Chicken, use a thin BBQ Sauce or add a bit of Oil, Vinegar, or other liquids to a thick BBQ sauce to thin it out. You can build up the Glazed BBQ Sauce just the same as a lacquered BBQ Sauce, but the glaze will be much thinner.

Cook Homemade BBQ Sauce for less time in order to achieve a thin BBQ sauce or add liquids to thin it out. Use more of the same liquids that are in the BBQ sauce. A bit of Oil should be added to create a nice glistening sheen.

Lacquered BBQ Chicken

Lacquered BBQ Chicken is Chicken with layers of caramelized BBQ Sauce. The heat is increased and thick BBQ sauce is brushed onto the chicken and cooked until dry and tacky before another layer of BBQ Sauce is brushed on. This is repeated to build up layers of BBQ Sauce. Anywhere from 3 – 5 layers.

This by far is my favorite and is messy good. Lacquered Chicken has a thick coating of caramelized BBQ Sauce.

Cook homemade BBQ Sauce until reduced and thick for lacquering BBQ Sauce.

Oven Baked & Broiled BBQ Chicken

For best results take the chicken out and leave for 1 hour to come to room temp before cooking. An internal temp of 157 F for white meat and 175 F + for dark meat will yield the best results followed by a rest.

The below is just a guideline, there are many ways to cook up BBQ Chicken in the oven, some methods include the sauce right away and others apply it later. It also depends on whether you want Lacquered or Glazed BBQ Chicken.

BBQ Seasoned Chicken

Season the Chicken and cook at 375 F for 45 minutes. Shut the oven heat off and leave the chicken in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes. Flip the Chicken over halfway through cooking.

Glazed BBQ Chicken

Place the chicken (skin on or removed) on a roasting pan on the middle rack position in a preheated oven at 375 F. Cook for about 45 minutes before glazing the chicken. Place back into the oven with the heat off for 15 – 20 minutes.

Lacquered BBQ Chicken

For Lacquered BBQ Chicken, after cooking at 375 F for 30 minutes, Brush on a coat all over the chicken and cook another 10 minutes. Brush on another coat and cook 8 minutes.

Flip the Chicken presentation side up and place the oven on broil. Lacquer the BBQ Sauce every 1-2 minutes or when the coating becomes tacky. Remove and allow the chicken to rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

Place water in the broiler pan to avoid burning the drippings and smoking up the kitchen.

Deep Fried BBQ Chicken

Deep Fry the Chicken at 350 F for about 15 – 18 minutes. Lift the basket up and shake to get rid of any excess grease. Place the chicken into a bowl and add the desired amount of Sauce and toss.

Deep Fry the Chicken with no Coating or use JFC Frickin Good Chicken Breading for JFC BBQ Chicken. Optionally use a Dusting to coat the chicken pieces. Which is

• 1 Tbl of Kosher Salt, Baking Powder & Cornstarch.

Optionally use a BBQ Seasoning over the Fried Chicken with or without BBQ Sauce.

Either way the Chicken is done up the same way as BBQ Chicken Wings. Deep Fried & coated in Sauce.

BBQ Sauces

Can you ever switch things up with just the BBQ Sauce and whether they are BBQ Seasoned, Glazed, Lacquered, oven baked, or deep fried. There is all kinds of ways to do it too. Below are some of the BBQ Sauces I have, and I often go between these depending on what I am in the mood for.