| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 2 hr 20 min |
| Prep: | 30 min |
| Cook: | 1 hr 50 min |
| Yield: | 6 servings |
Ingredients
- 6 chicken quarters (4 to 4 1/2 pounds total)
- 2 tablespoons ground ginger
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
- 6 12 -ounce bottles ginger beer
- 6 black tea bags
- 3/4 cup minced onion
- 1 28 -ounce can diced tomatoes
- 1/4 cup dijon mustard
- 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
- 12 sprigs thyme
- 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
Instructions
- Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Toss the ginger with 2 tablespoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Sprinkle half of the mixture on the chicken; reserve the rest. Refrigerate the chicken, uncovered, at least 2 hours.
- Meanwhile, make the sauce: Pour the ginger beer into a wide skillet; cover and bring to a boil. Uncover and cook over high heat until reduced by half, about 30 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the tea bags and steep 10 minutes; discard the tea bags. Add the onion, tomatoes, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar and thyme. Return to high heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until thick, about 50 minutes, using a potato masher to crush the tomatoes during the last 5 minutes. Remove the thyme. Set aside half of the sauce for serving.
- Bring the chicken to room temperature about 30 minutes before grilling. Preheat a grill to medium with indirect heat: On a charcoal grill, bank the coals to one side; on a gas grill, turn off half of the burners.
- Brush the chicken with some of the butter and sprinkle with some of the remaining ground ginger mixture. Place skin-side up on the cooler side of the grill; cover and cook until it starts browning, about 18 minutes, basting with more butter and sprinkling with more ground ginger mixture halfway through. Brush the chicken with a thick layer of sauce. Cover and cook until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part registers 160 degrees F, about 20 minutes, basting with more sauce halfway through.
- Brush the chicken with more butter, then turn skin-side down and place on the hotter side of the grill (over direct heat). Cook, uncovered, until marked, about 2 minutes. Rotate the chicken to make crisscross grill marks and cook 2 more minutes. Transfer to a board and let rest about 10 minutes. Season with salt and serve with the reserved sauce.
Reviews
This was so good! The sauce takes a long time to cook down but it’s worth it. I used an immersion blender to smooth it out, might use crushed tomatoes next time instead of diced. Definitely will make this again!
this is a keeper! I had left over ginger beer and saw this recipe. I tried it and Wow!!! next time I am going to make extra sauce and let the grilled chicken simmer in the sauce. I never thought it would be as good as it tuned out. I have tried many grilled chicken recipes on this website but this one is by far the best. I will keep this one in the rotation. Maybe only use it for special occasions just to impress the guests!!
I’m going to make some now..lol follow me on twitter @jloyd139
This was absolutely delicious. I have never heard of Ginger Beer before and looked for it in the beer section of the grocery store. It is actually a non-alcoholic drink and I found it in the soda section of the store. I will be making this again! Yum.
I halved the recipe, used skin-on bone-in thighs, forgot the tea, and this recipe still turned out great. I did use this grill method over coals and the skin, reduced on indirect heat first, turned out crispy over the direct heat at the end. Note: I used a spicy ginger beer, Maine Root, and in the first few minutes of reducing it, had a feeling of breathing in pepper — coughing fit. Suggest ventilating the kitchen for that step.
The sauce came together very quickly. Initially I thought there would be way too much sauce for the amount of chicken, but in the end it was perfect. I reduced the sauce on a lower temperature to avoid a big mess on the stove top. Then I used an immersion blender to puree the sauce (after removing my bundle of thyme. The sauce caramelized on the grill and was delish. Nice change of pace from regular BBQ sauce!
A
The chicken and BBQ sauce taste great! Good recipe, but not so great cooking method. I grilled it as directed, but next time I’m going to ROAST the chicken. The skin never fully crisped up on the grill and all of the basting was a lot of work and made a big mess. Like another reviewer suggested, I actually hit my sauce with an immersion blender and it was great :
Serve with Basmati Rice and for adults, Rum and Coke ;
Awesome recipe, I loved the BBQ sauce. My only suggestion would be to put the BBQ sauce in a food processor after mashing. I think if the sauce was a little smoother it would have stayed on the chicken a little easier on the BBQ.