Louisiana chicken cooked on the Weber Pulse 2000 electric BBQ

Delicious sweet, spicy, chilli chicken; quick and easy to cook on the BBQ

Sweet, spicy chicken with a chilli kick is hard to resist especially if the skin is lovely and crisp. Cook breasts as part of a main meal or if you just want something for your guests to pick at while waiting for a ‘low and slow’ to cook then wings or thighs are ideal. The only time element is in preparing the rub and the sauce; if you don’t want to go to all that trouble then there are masses of ready made rubs and sauces available. Pop along to our Barbecue Shop in the store here at Hayes Garden World where we have a huge selection of both sauces and rubs.

Ingredients:

1kg (2lb 3oz) chicken breasts, thighs or wings

Rub:

1 tbsp brown sugar
2 teasp smoked paprika
1½ teasp sea salt
1 teasp onion powder
1 teasp dried oregano
¼ teasp garlic powder
½ teasp dried thyme
½ teasp fresh ground black pepper
½ teasp cayenne pepper

Sauce:

4 tbsp tomato ketchup
4 tbsp hot chilli sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 teasp cider vinegar
1 teasp hot pepper sauce
½ teasp Cajun spice bland
40g (1½oz) butter; melted

Equipment:

Soak the wood chips for 30 minutes and place in the Smoker Box. Pre-heat the grill to 180 – 230C (350 – 450F) with both direct and indirect cooking zones, with the smoker box over the high heat as it needs to be smoking before you start to grill the chicken. We are using the Weber Pulse 2000 electric BBQ, which is ideal if you live somewhere which bans the use of live fire. The left hand element is on maximum and the right element is on two thirds heat, giving a roasting heat on the right and a grilling heat on the left.

Combine all the rub ingredients and put a good coating onto the chicken. Leave the chicken in a covered bowl at room temperature for about 20 minutes; cooking from room temperature ensures a more even, quicker cook.

The marinated chicken is placed on the right hand roasting side to start with.

As the Pulse comes with an in-built iGrill the two probes were placed into the chicken, one into a back piece and one into a front piece. The app on the smartphone was set to chicken; this will alert us when the chicken is nearing temperature.

Once the chicken reaches the high 50’sC low 60’s the smoker box comes off and the chicken is basted with the sauce mix and moved over to the grilling side of the BBQ to finish cooking. Combine all the sauce ingredients, if you don’t want to mix your own sauce there are lots available ready made so opt for one which has a bit of a kick to it. Once the first side of the chicken has gone nice and sticky turn them over and baste the second side.

Once it reaches 75C, the safe temperature for chicken, it comes off and rests for about 10 – 20 minutes covered in tinfoil. If you don’t have the iGrill check the temperature using a digital temperature probe.