Brined chicken drumsticks grilled and finished with a North Carolina mustard style barbecue sauce.
Carolina Gold Barbecue Buttermilk Brined Chicken Drumsticks
By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime
This is my first outing with the blogging group #CrazyIngredientChallenge, which is hosted by Kelly of Passion Kneaded and Lori of Lori’s Culinary Creations. The premise is that there will be two ingredients, and we have to come up with a recipe that uses both.
You know I really dig doing this kind of cooking, as you might see from my recent #RSC posts earlier this week. I enjoy putting my thinking cap on. But for this event, which pairs Buttermilk and BBQ Sauce, I knew immediately I would be putting some chicken legs in a brine and then finishing them on the grill. I made up a gold mustard style sauce for this since I have used a gold sauce on pork before. And it sounded delicious to be able to schmear it on chicken legs, which I also love because they are so inexpensive.
I do this chicken at a higher heat rather than just smoking it. I know many really like the smoking, but this chicken does get the smoke flavor. My issue with smoked chicken drummies is that the skin tends to get leathery, while doing them off to the side of higher heat gets a better texture there. I am not one to give up my precious bites of chicken skin lightly.
I do tend to like smoking whole chickens and turkey breast, but that’s another story.
If you are looking for sides for your bbq, I always have a ton I love:
Be sure to check out the other recipes in the linkup under the recipe printout. Or save to Pinterest for later.
Carolina Gold Barbecue Buttermilk Brined Chicken Drumsticks
Add in an additional 6 hours or more to marinate chicken.
2-1/2 pounds bone-in chicken legs (6 drums)
Brine Ingredients:
- 2 cups whole buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons Louisiana pepper sauce
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
Carolina Gold BBQ Sauce Ingredients:
Yield: 1 cup sauce
- 1/2 cup yellow mustard
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 1-1/2 teaspoons Louisiana pepper sauce
- 1-1/2 teaspoons molasses
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Method:
- Marinate chicken in brine mixture for 6 hours or overnight.
- Whisk together and simmer sauce ingredients for about ten minutes or until hot; set aside.
- Drain chicken from marinade, discarding marinade.
- Pat chicken legs dry.
- Prepare grill for indirect grilling; heat to 400°F.
- Place chicken on hot part of grill for a couple minutes each side to get grill marks.
- Move chicken to the side of the hotter coals for indirect cooking.
- Cover grill and cook 30-40 minutes at 375°-400° until internal meat temperature reaches 165°F.
- Brush lightly with sauce and let char lightly over hotter part of grill; remove from grill and let rest 5-10 minutes.
- Serve with additional sauce as desired.
From the kitchen of palatablepastime.com
Crazy Ingredient Challenge
Barbecue Sauce and Buttermilk Recipes
Be sure to check out the other Crazy Ingredient Challenge Bloggers this month!
Click on the hop link button to be transported to the other recipes:
If you want to be part of the challenge in the future, email lorisculinarycreations at hotmail dot com.
I have used buttermilk for brining my chicken for frying but never for grilling. Great idea.
Your chicken recipe looks amazing. I’ll have to try buttermilk as a brine. Never done that before