barbecuechicken
I'm looking for some general advice on how to do this. I've attempted this twice and they turned out OK, but the outside layer looked a little black. Everyone really liked how it turned out but I'm wondering how I can improve. This is my process:
Way too many variables. If you knew how warm the chicken was before cooking, how hot the cooking area is (and whether that will change during the cooking time), how thick the chicken is, whether you're cooking white or dark meat, and more, you might be able to make a good guess.
I would not recommend cooking just thawed, thick pieces of chicken on an uncovered grill. Too easy to make it hard on the outside and dry on the inside.
I wouldn't estimate lower than 20 minutes, but it will almost certainly be longer.
Edit: Here's a "Good Eats" video about doing chicken on a grill. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAvy4YksJgM&feature=related It's better to go ahead and cut the chicken up the rest of the way for grilling so that each type and size of meat can be on it's own cooking schedule.
I think what you want to do is this, cribbed from this book, which has an excellent step by step guide with pictures:
Remove the wings. Stand the chicken on its neck, legs point to the ceiling and breasts pointing away from you. slide the cleaver between the body and wing, cutting through the joint close to the body. You should slide the knife between the joint cutting only the tendons, not the bone.
Remove the legs. lie the chicken on its back one leg near you, one leg away from you. slide the knife between the joint near the body, again cutting only tendon not bone and remove the leg.
Separate the thigh from the drumstick, again go for the joint. If you want the legs to be in smaller pieces then you can cut each thigh and drumstick in two with a firm action. You have 2 choices for technique
Start with the cleaver tip furthest from you on the board, place the thigh under the blade and push down firmly and quickly. you should cut through the bone.
Chop through the bone by lifting the cleaver in the air and bringing down hard and fast. This has better chance of a cleaner cut through the bone, but you need to be a better aim.
Split the carcass in half. Stand in the same position as 1. and with the blade parallel to to your body cut down through the carcass so you have the back and the breast in separate pieces
Remove the breast from the bone by sliding the knife (might want to use a smaller knife here) between the meat and the bone.
Remove the backbone out of the back, kitchen scissors are easiest. you can skip this if the back doesn't have much meat.
Cut the back pieces into nice size pieces across the length.
Slice the breast pieces crosswise into nice size pieces
Reassemble the chicken on the plate with the breast meat on top of the back pieces
this picture doesn't really do it justice, but until I can find a better one...
this video shows it being done with a bit more force and not for presentation, but might be more what you are after
Best Answer
Alton Brown has an interesting technique in an episode of Good Eats in quite a bit of detail.
But, what I just do is to put it on direct heat (right over a medium-high flame) to sear the skin side and then move to indirect heat (burner right below turned off, other burner still on) and cover to complete. I will admit I've burned it a couple times, but every time I do, it's cause I've forgotten to check it, and left it without checking it.