How to Cook The Best Chicken Barbecue

Food is an ultimately helpful instrument that opens the windows to one's culture. Filipino families value the importance of togetherness in the dining room. Every meal, even though just made of simple recipes, is as vital as typical family time. Perhaps food helpfully binds all family members together, no matter how hectic schedules could get. 

You cannot deny that chicken recipes, whether from chicken breasts, chicken thighs, drumsticks or any other chicken pieces, are frequently craved at almost every dining table. A study conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reveals that an average Filipino consumes a total of 11.6 kilograms of chicken every year. The survey shows that the Filipino kitchen loves chicken dishes. Among all delicious recipes, chicken barbecue is one of the most sought after.  

It doesn't matter what celebration you have, either the fourth of July or years of a romantic relationship, to indulge yourself, your family and your friends for a bite of a delicious BBQ chicken. Plus, it's an ultimate MVP since it's everyone's all time favorite to have any day. In this article, we will have the best barbecue chicken.

Interestingly, most people curious to cook bbq recipes think it is complicated to do and might eat up their whole day. Newbies to these recipes are boxing into thinking that it takes a well-tested chef to execute the recipes. For one, it's hard to figure out how to come up with the marinade. Plus, choosing which part of the meat is a crucial process. Also, health-conscious people worry that eating grilled chicken might put their health at greater risk. It doesn't require you to be a chef to make these recipes. There are many guides in doing so, and it only takes minutes! 

Nevertheless, even though this is a new experience for you, calm yourself and don't sweat out! Try to learn cooking this simple bbq chicken considering this doesn't need to be complicated and will only take a few minutes. In reality, there are lots of ways of doing it. You may fry it on a pan, hot grill it over burning coal, or even bake it inside an oven. Whatever the method is, you will enjoy and linger on it. 

Thus, brace yourself because it's time to read this article. We find simple recipes on how to make and recreate the dish as your masterpiece successfully. It opens to the fact that all you need is ample time, the most delicate chicken meat, and a combination of the right condiments and spices for the dressing.

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What Is A Good Chicken Barbecue Marinade Made Of

We, Filipinos, are known to be thrifty and strategic in the day-to-day things we do. It is a helpful strategy to save money. We are not beginners with the idea of creating sumptuous meals out of the simplest ingredients and recipes. By simply having creativity turns the meal exquisitely good and mouthwatering, especially in making dressings for meat. So, let's initiate by finding out what recipes constitute a flavorful bbq chicken dressing. 

For someone new to such recipes, mixing catsup, soy sauce, and a few tablespoons of brown sugar can suffice in creating your chicken seasoning. Meanwhile, putting sugarcane vinegar and 7UP soda is necessary for some folks to make the bbq sauce sticky. Besides, infusing lemon or calamansi and cayenne pepper (siling labuyo) can turn our main dish to even more exciting, and the flavour becomes overwhelming.  

Just be mindful of selecting and using the right part so the bbq sauce can permeate through the meat. Chefs emphasize that the breasts cook quickly, and it is healthier, while the thigh takes a longer time. The same goes for the legs and wings. Besides, every piece requires varying time.   

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Best Dishes/Recipes To Make For Your Leftover Grilled Chicken

Being creative opens and connects the reality that Filipinos are not new to the idea of being economical. It is the attitude our nation has inherited from Chinese influence during the pre-colonial era. We have practically applied this lifestyle in our recipes by keeping leftovers and recreating them in the next mealtime.

Fortunately, parsimony helps us because we have included some enticing idea on recreating bbq chicken leftover recipes. Hence, when lunch is ready, and there are some leftovers, there is no need to execute a new recipe for the next meal. We will guide you with recipes on how to turn those leftovers into a delectable dish for an epic dinner or breakfast for the following day.

Fried Rice Recipes with Grilled Chicken 

Rice is the staple food for a class of Asians, including Filipinos. It is our favorite comfort food that even with little or no viand at all, it is still satisfying for as long as the rice is good. A bowl of leftover rice and the shredded chicken pieces leftover is a great recipe for fried rice. 

To pull this go-to breakfast, begin by shredding the leftover bbq chicken meat. Saute minced garlic cloves and onion over a caramelized butter (mantikilya), add it in your leftover rice, and mix it until flattened. Add your shredded meat, together with some veggies like baked potatoes sliced carrots, and green peas. 

Remember to add salt and black pepper to reinforce the flavor and add aroma. More importantly, the beautiful part of this easy recipe is to mix the chicken sauce in the rice. And voila, you have a hearty breakfast packed with worlds.

Shredded Chicken Pieces are Ideal with Veggies

If you're not in the mood to eat big and prefer something light without wasting your leftover meat, adding your bbq to stir fry veggies can be your go-to recipe. It requires some fresh broccoli, red and green bell peppers, cornstarch, sliced garlic cloves and onion, and some button mushrooms.

The first thing to do is melt a portion of your boxed-shaped butter or a small amount of canola oil on a pan. Then, saute the sliced garlic and onion until light brown, followed by putting the leftover bbq chicken meat and the fresh veggies. Add some water and cornstarch to thicken the sauce, with salt and pepper to enhance the flavour. 

From Leftover to a Chicken Salad 

What could be more delightful than a classy salad on a dinner table! The ingredients are mustard sauce, honey, and vinegar; to make your bbq chicken into a salad. In a pot, stir this mixture and add your lettuce, striped bell peppers, avocado, and red onion. 

Luckily, if you used the chicken breasts, chicken thighs or chicken legs, slice them into cutlets and toss them in the salad bowl. Pour in the italian salad dressing and mix it evenly. There you have transformed your BBQ leftover into a seemingly new luscious salad.  

 Leftover Chicken Pasta Bake

When you are craving for pasta over dinner, leftover bbq chicken meat can be a savior. It needs to pre-cook any pasta. Sprinkle some salt and drops of olive oil to prevent the noodles from sticking in your pan then set it aside

To make the sauce, saute slices of garlic, onion, and diced tomatoes over a pan with few olive oil drops and stir them until the juice comes out. Pour in the barbecue sauce, then add sliced bell peppers, a pinch of brown sugar, pepper, salt, and chili flakes to boost its taste. Add the shredded leftover chicken thighs or drumsticks and the pasta while stirring it evenly.

Following this, transfer your newly-mixed pasta into a baking dish. Grate some cheese to mix it in the pasta and put some on the surface as toppings. Place it inside a preheated oven and bake it for a total of half an hour at 176 degrees Celsius. Transfer the dish into a platter and enjoy your delectable dinner. 

Grilled Chicken Adobo

Adobo is arguably one of the most famous Filipino recipes. Our leftover meat can turn into adobo to answer our cravings. To do this, you need to have slices of garlic, ginger, and onion. Crushed pepper, soya sauce, apple cider vinegar, and salt are also needed in this main dish. 

To have adobo, saute the slices of garlic, onion, and ginger over butter or canola oil. After this, put your shredded meat in the newly-sauteed garlic, ginger, and onion. Mix it with soya sauce and vinegar. Don't leave behind adding salt and pepper for flavour enhancement. Simmer for 5 to 7 mins. You may consider playing with its flavour by putting sugar if you prefer a little sweetness. 

Afritada Madness

Afritada is another top contender in the Filipino taste bud. It is also one of the most prominent Filipino recipes. The month of July opens many celebrations and festivities in the country that are not complete without an afritada.

For a new and aromatic afritada, it needs minced onion, slices of tomatoes, and ginger. You'll also need tomato sauce and tomato paste. Do not forget the veggies that would garnish the dish, such as potatoes, carrots, Kentucky beans, green peas, and bell pepper.     

To begin with, saute the onion, tomatoes, and ginger over butter or canola oil. After this, add the meat with tomato sauce and tomato paste. Let it simmer for about 5 to 7 minutes. The chef advises putting the veggies like potatoes, carrots, Kentucky beans, green peas, and bell pepper on the last part. 

From Leftovers to Steamed Rice in Banana Leaves

Chicken pastil is one of the most popular Filipino recipes that originate from the Mindanao islands. This delicious cuisine is an easy-to-carry, handy meal since it is in banana leaves.    

It needs slices of garlic and minced onion. You'll also need soya sauce, salt, pepper, and banana leaves. The ideal meat part for this tasty dish is breasts. For the first step, the meat must be sliced into little pieces and set aside. 

Saute the slices of garlic and onion over butter or oil. The sliced meat needs to add to the newly-sauteed garlic and onion. Mix for 2 mins. After mixing, put soya sauce and a pinch of salt. Let it cook for a total of 10 to 15 minutes. Once cooked, you may opt to put hot steamed rice in a banana leaf with sliced meat and add chili.   

The Special Casserole 

Although this bbq chicken dish may not be famous compared to recipes, chicken barbecue casserole is a friendly cuisine suited for all years and ages. It possesses vast amounts of protein for the body. It needs black beans, sweet kernel corn, green pepper, fried onions, cheese, and barbecue sauce. 

First, chop the meat into smaller pieces. Combine the barbecue sauce, black beans, corn, green pepper, and chopped meat. Once done, put it in a casserole dish and place cheese on top of it. The cheese adds flavor and aroma to the platter.

Cover the casserole dish with foil and bake it in the oven for 25 minutes at 190 degrees celsius. After 25 minutes, remove the foil and add fried onions. By that time, the casserole dish needs to be placed in the oven for ten more minutes. 

When browning the onions and the sides are bubbling, let the dish rest for 5 minutes. With this bbq chicken, you may want to consider garnishing the dish with cilantro. 

Transformation to Sizzling Sisig 

Sizzling sisig is one of the most versatile recipes in the country. Sisig's versatility opens us to the reality that this wonderful dish is always present from formal celebrations to street parties. It suits every occasion and goes very well with any drink.

This bbq sizzling includes minced garlic and onion, sliced serrano peppers, calamansi or lime juice, salt and pepper, mayonnaise, soya sauce, chicken liver, olive oil or butter, and shredded/chopped leftover.

First, preheat the sizzling metal plate for 10 minutes in the oven under 232 degrees celsius. While doing this, saute the garlic over butter or extravirgin olive oil in a medium heat until it is soft. Once softened, add the shredded meat and mix for 3 minutes. After this, add soya sauce and stir for 30 seconds.    

On a different pan, cook the chicken liver until it's crispy. Once it’s cooked, let the liver rest, and chop it afterward. 

Combine shredded chicken, liver, onion, chili pepper, and calamansi or lime juice in a pot. You may improve the flavour by putting kosher salt and pepper. Once carefully mixed, transfer it to the preheated sizzling metal plate. This bbq chicken is ideal with an ice-cold beer.     

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Troubleshooting

Although making chicken dishes is just like playing because it's pretty easy-peasy and straightforward, it's still evident that problems might occur. On that note, we listed some typical troubles you might encounter to solve it and eventually prevent these from happening again.

 Uncooked chicken - in this case, it's transparent that the chicken pieces is not well cooked when the meat has changed color on the outside, yet it is dry and tender inside when sliced. As we have mentioned earlier, different parts of meat yield different cooking duration. However, if this occurs, you can return the chicken to the pan and let it slow cook some more. The internal temperature of the meat will exactly tell if it's cooked already.

Dry meat- is a nightmare faced by many recipes, whether grilling, barbecuing, or even frying the chicken. To prevent this from happening, you can try basting the chicken pieces with the extra bbq sauce or use foil to cover the chicken while you grill it.

Faulty sauce - Your barbecue sauce can be either extra sour or extra salty, and we don't want that kind of barbeque sauce. If this happens, you can adjust this error by putting enough water until you get the perfect taste for your bbq chicken. You can make a perfect sweet barbecue sauce recipe if you check the amount of kosher salt. Kosher salt helps in enhancing the sugar flavour. The chefs called flavour layering, and if mixed perfectly, this will give your body an excellent biological response.

Runny sauce - recipes do not want a watery barbecue sauce. Almost everyone wants a thick, creamy barbecue sauce that clings to the chicken. If your barbecue sauce is runny instead of gooey, dissolve a teaspoon of cornstarch in water, then add to the barbecue sauce and let it simmer, but do not boil.

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Trivia: Best Sauce Recipe For BBQ Chicken 

We all aspire to achieve that gold standard bbq sauce. The question opens to how and what ingredients should we use to create the perfect homemade bbq sauce for the bbq chicken. Mix brown sugar, soya sauce, sugar cane vinegar, lemon juice or calamansi, and ketchup. Yummy!

But, if you're a pro of many bbq recipes and know what goes correctly to the mix, then, by all means, test your skills and make that fancy rub by using some of the herbs you know so well. 

For some who are new to this and don't know what herbs go well with the chicken and would want to level up this wonderful dish, here are some of the herbs that you can use:

• Thyme - this herb enhances the flavour of other ingredients in various recipes.
• Dried oregano - it is the right combination for your bbq dressing. It will have a flavourful baste and will help you keep your meat moist. It also does not leave behind any unusual aftertaste.
• Sage - this is used in stuffing the inside of your meat with other ingredients in different recipes. It is also ideal for creating rubs and dressings, but too much of this can overpower your meat.
• Rosemary - this herb has a strong flavour, too, so use sparingly. Use some sprigs and crush it by pounding it a little so the oil from it would come out, thus the aroma flavour. Sprinkle some on your meat.
• Tarragon - of all the herbs in this list, Tarragon is ideal for grilling/bbq. It is always right in the bbq sauce. Tarragon enhances the flavour of other ingredients, too. Unlike other herbs, Tarragon doesn't overpower the other recipe's ingredients, even when used a little bit too much.

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Tips for Cooking the Best BBQ Chicken Recipe

Here are some tips on how you can perfectly cook bbq chicken without being scared, ending it up undercooked.

Cooking Temperature

The question is, what is the correct cooking temperature? According to the author of the blog known as Thermoblog, the right temperature for a slow cooking method would be about 200 - 300 ℉ (93-149 ℃). It varies among different parts and various recipes.

Time Duration

As we mentioned above, different parts yield different amounts of time in cooking. Depending on the recipe, if you grill chicken breasts, chicken legs or chicken thighs, grill the chicken for a total of 5 to 10 mins each side or till the juices run clear.

Additional Tips

• Basting - is a method where you frequently brush more bbq sauce all over the meat on every flip. It will rub in the flavour until it reaches the core up to the bone.

• Skin Side Down - when you soak the boneless chicken breasts with skin in the marinade, the chicken skin should side down. This technique will get the flavour into the chicken and skin.

• Trim - if your chicken breasts are thick and fatty in the middle, but run thin on edge, trim it away. To avoid burnt tips.

• Brine - recipes consider this a brilliant method to keep your bbq moist and plump even after cooked well done. All you need is one pitcher of water, ½ cup of rock salt, rosemary crushed, 2 tablespoon of sugar, and black pepper. 

In a casserole, heat the water (don't boil or even let it simmer), put all the ingredients, stir and dissolve the salt and sugar. Cool it down, add cold water, put the meat, and marinate it overnight or 6-8 hours.

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What Is Best To Go Along With Barbecue Chicken 

In the end, what goes along with best BBQ Chicken? The answer opens to Filipinos' innate love for hot-steamed rice. But some believed that there are other variants to choose from. So we've come up with some cool ideas and recommend choices on what to serve with the bbq dish. We hope you'll test these recommendations.

• Garlic Fried Rice - the ideal comfort food served with the appetizing viand.
• Pancit Canton - you might be surprised, but barbecue also goes well with noodles.
• Vegetable salad - when you have leftovers, turn it into a salad topping.
• Pork and Beans - believe us, it is a heavenly combination.
• Baked Macaroni Cheese - the combination of the cheese' creaminess and the meat's sultry flavour will just burst in your palate like fireworks.
• Soft drinks - any special meal is not special without soft drinks. It complements the rice and the barbecue.  

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Conclusion

This great barbecue recipe opens to the possibility of bringing your mealtime to another level. The variation of barbecue recipes is breath-taking and mouthwatering. Hence, you can enhance your creativity without hurting your budget. 

We hope we have guided you perfectly on how to make the grandest barbecue chicken. So, give your next outing a treat. Cook this bbq chicken and let people savor the feast.

For more recipes, visit Eat Like Pinoy!

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