How to BBQ a Whole Chicken

Taking a golden browned whole chicken out of the BBQ at meal time always seems to impress people more than taking that same chicken out of an oven for dinner would – although really, there is no reason why it should, as cooking a chicken in your BBQ is no more difficult!

The key here is to think of your BBQ as an oven, albeit an oven with a few extra features. (For clarity, I am not talking about a smoker here, just a regular propane backyard covered BBQ)

• Grilling a whole chicken over direct heat is hard – it’s pretty tough to keep the exterior from overcooking (or burning) before the interior cooks through.
• Cooking a whole chicken over indirect heat in a BBQ is a cinch – you just use the burner on one side of the grill to heat the covered BBQ and put the chicken on the grill on the other side – as far as you can from the lit burner. Now, your BBQ works like an oven and you can ‘roast’ a chicken on a hot summer’s day without worrying about overheating your kitchen!

BBQ Whole Chicken

1. Take one 4 to 6 pound chicken
2. Ideally, brine or marinate this overnight in advance of cooking (check brining instructions for recipes)
3. When ready to cook, preheat the BBQ to medium (using only the heating element on one side – the side where you won’t be cooking the bird!)
4. When the BBQ is hot, place your chicken breast side up on the grill, as far as possible from the flame. Cover the lid and let the chicken cook undisturbed for about 45 minutes, or until cooked through to 180 in the deepest section of the thigh (Use your instant read thermometer here – actually, you can get away with chicken cooked a little less well done than this, but in my experience no-one likes looking at chicken that has even a hint of pink to it)
5. If desired, a few minutes before the end of cooking, brush the chicken with a finishing sauce of your liking.

That’s it! So easy and it makes a great hot-day family dinner. Once you get the hang of this very simple technique there is no end to the changes you could make to suit your tastes - Using different marinades (jerk chicken, wine marinades etc.) or cooking with a little smoke from wood chips in the BBQ or whatever else you can think of.

Happy grilling!