Author Notes
This was inspired by Brazilian friends who love grilled chicken and made me fall in love with it especially that little bit of spice in the BBQ sauce. —Jeff McGovern
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Ingredients
- 1 Whole Chicken or two breasts and two thighs - bone in
- Spicy Brazilian Tomato Sauce
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2
Tomatoes
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2
Green Onions
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2
Stalks of Celery
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1
Can of coconut milk
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5
Red Thai Chili Peppers
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1
Clove of garlic minced
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1
Fresh Parsley
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1 cup
Chick Peas or Black Beans Optional
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1 tablespoon
Tomato paste
Directions
- 1 Whole Chicken or two breasts and two thighs - bone in
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I prefer working with the whole chicken, for this recipe, but if you don't have the tools to remove the back bone, individual pieces work fine, just keep your eye on the temperature of your pieces for it will cook faster and you just need to be make sure you season well under the skin.
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Remove back bone from chicken and place on a baking sheet skin-side up. Take another cooking sheet and place on top of chicken and press down until you hear the breast bone break. You want the chicken to lie flat on the grill. It's important to get the bone to break so the entire bone side comes in contact with the grill. (some recipes you see a brick covered in foil on top of the chicken, I find it dries it our too much when I do that)
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Generously season all sides of the chicken. Turn your BBQ on high for 5 minutes to get the grill hot.
Turn one side off, and the other down to medium. Place the chicken skin side up on the OFF side of the grill. This will prevent flare ups and premature burning of the skin. Close lid and cook for 20/30 minutes. Check temperature when reaches 140/145F flip skin side onto the flame side of the grill and char skin. DO NOT WALK AWAY. you may experience flare ups, simply remove chicken back to other grill. Try not to tear the skin, and adjust heat accordingly. cook until temperature reaches 155F. If the bone side of your chicken is not charred lightly brush with Olive oil and grill util desired charrness is reached.
Close lid and cook until temperature reads 140/145 F.
Turn heat down to medium low and flip chicken onto the flame side of the BBQ skin side down. DO NOT WALK AWAY. Be careful of flares from the fat. If this happens remove your chicken to the other side until it subsides.
Cook until skin has good charring (controlled burn) and temperature in the thigh bone reaches 155/160F. You want it for flour, but you also want your chicken to be moist inside. This takes a little practice.
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Remove from heat and cover loosely with foil and let rest about 15 20 minutes before cutting into Quarters.
- Spicy Brazilian Tomato Sauce
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Chop tomatoes into 1/8 pieces, finely dice garlic, slice celery and the whites of the green onion ( save green stems) over medium heat until tender 5 minutes.
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Add Red Thai Chili peppers and sauté for 5 minutes. Do not slice unless you can handle the heat.
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Add tomato paste and stir into mixture. Add can of coconut milk, chick peas and simmer while chicken is cooking.
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While chicken is resting chop green stems of onion and add to sauce, season with Salt and pepper
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Place two tablespoons of mixture on a plate and light press to flatten. Don't worry about sauce yet. Rest chicken over mixture and drizzle with the sauce. Top with fresh parsley.
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This sauce can be made a day ahead to bring out the flavours, just reserve green onions until reheated.
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