Sauced

Around this time every year, the cooks of the Deep South begin closing their kitchens for the summer. The majority of your cooking should take place over the slowly burning coals of your grill until the cold returns in October. You can use your kitchen to cut veggies, make a salad, or slice fruit, but other than that, abandon the oven.

As you grill, smoke, and 'cue this summer, keep in mind that no matter what anyone says, good barbecue sauce makes anything taste better. Uncle Lee Bird's Cajun Zing Sauce is great barbecue sauce, so do the math. What you will really like about the sauce is the heat from it blasts away the initial sweetness. So you get that heat creeping up the back of your throat thing, which is much preferable to say strep creeping up the back of your throat.

I've had this sauce on pork butt (made by Lee and Nikki Mouton) at Hogs for the Cause. The way the sweetness and heat played off the smoky, fatty meat and pungent blue cheese slaw was enough to make me a convert.

But then I tried it on a half chicken that I had marinated in yogurt, roasted in a smoking oven, and then placed on the grill. The resulting chicken had incredible tenderness, a skin that felt shellacked, and a juicy interior.

The sauce works equally well on burgers, but I would be careful to make sure you only baste it on at the last minute, or else the sugars in the sauce can cause it to burn quickly.

This is good sauce made right here and well-tuned to the New Orleans palate. Find it here, and let us know what you use it on.

Perfect Barbecue Chicken

For this recipe I borrow from the Indian tandoori tradition by marinating chicken in yogurt before blasting it in a super hot oven. Then place it over indirect heat on the grill and baste on some sauce. Cover and let the smoke do the work.

I have a simple Weber grill, so to smoke things I place the coals on one side of the grill and the food on the other. The vent hole on the lid goes over the food side and remains open. This causes air to move in a current (or something like that).

Take one chicken cut up. Rinse and pat dry. In a large bowl combine 2 cups of plain Greek style yogurt, a hefty pinch of salt, pepper, and paprika, and 4 minced garlic cloves. Stir to combine. Taste, adjust seasoning. It should be very aggressive. Into the bowl, add your chicken pieces and toss. Place in fridge and allow to marinate for 2-24 hours.

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Remove chicken from marinade bowl and place in a roasting pan. Do not remove the marinade. Place in oven and roast for 45 minutes. After roasting, place chicken on grill, baste with Zing Sauce, place cover on grill, and come back in fifteen minutes. Serve with cold beer (or if Mary Magdalene isn't around, rosé).