Grilling and lessons learned: Grilled Hoisin Chicken Thighs

A mix of Asian seasonings and indirect grilling combine to create flavorful, tender Grilled Hoisin Chicken Thighs. Recipe below.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Last week I wrote my little anti-grilling manifesto, and here I am doing a grilling post this week. It’s not that I don’t like grilling or the wonderfully smokey taste of something done right on the grill—it’s that I don’t like not being in control, not feeling like I know what I’m doing.

But there’s just something so American about cooking outdoors, especially on that most American of holidays, the 4th of July. So I hauled out our beat-up Weber for the first time this year and gave it my best shot. The juicy, tender, grilled chicken you see above was our Independence Day dinner.

Regarding the control issue, one way to do something about it is to actually learn something about what you’re trying to do. For us, that often means a trip to the library. Marion and I are total library geeks, with overdue fine rap sheets as long as your arm. But librarians love us because we cheerfully pay the fines, figuring it’s still way cheaper than buying the hundreds of books and CDs and DVDs we borrow over any given year.

Occasionally as I peruse the cookbooks at the library, I’ll stray into the grilling section. Sometimes out of curiosity, more often out of guilt, I’ll actually check out a book on grilling, hoping to fix what I view as a cooking character flaw—my inability to reliably grill well. Most recently, it was this book: Mastering the Grill: The Owner’s Manual for Outdoor Cooking, a 4.2-pound tome roughly the size of a major city phone book.

I didn’t read the entire 416 pages—barely flipped through the recipes, in fact. My main focus was the front section on grilling techniques. This book drills deep, but does it in clear, readable prose and pictures. Much of what I read traveled safely through my brain without getting stuck, but something the authors said about indirect grilling stuck. And it made all the difference with this dish.

This recipe is based on one I found at Epicurious.com. It called for roasting chicken in the oven, which I did the first time. Cooking it on the grill made it tastier and juicier. I’ve written it the way I’ll prepare it next time—in Kitchen Notes, I’ll tell you the minor change I made.

Grilled Hoisin Chicken Thighs
Serves 4 to 6 [with possible leftovers]

1/2 cup hoisin sauce [see Kitchen Notes]
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger [see Kitchen Notes]
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper—or to taste [see Kitchen Notes]
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar [not seasoned, if you can find it]
10 chicken thighs with bones and skin

Whisk together all ingredients except chicken in a small bowl. Start coals if you’re using charcoal [see Kitchen Notes].

Arrange chicken thighs on platter or plates, undersides up [not the skin side]. Brush lightly with hoisin sauce mixture. Turn chicken skin side up and coat liberally with mixture. You’ll still have lots of sauce left over—you can make even more chicken, try reducing the sauce recipe beforehand or throw out the extra, which is what I did.

When the coals are hot, arrange them on both sides of the kettle, leaving an open space down the center section. If you want to get all uptown, place a disposable aluminum pan in the middle to catch the grease drippings from the chicken. I didn’t. Oil the cooking grill, put it in place and arrange the chicken thighs skin side up over the center so they are not directly over the coals. [With a gas grill, set it up however it’s recommended for indirect grilling—I’ve never used one, so I won’t pretend to know what to do here]. Put the lid on, with all the vents above and below completely open for maximum airflow and heat.

Now here’s the tricky part: Leave it alone. Go have a drink, mingle with your guests, make a salad or whatever. Do not open the grill. You know how when you’re baking or roasting something and you nervously check it every 3.2 minutes and it takes for freaking ever to get done because you’re constantly reducing the oven’s temperature by opening the door? With indirect grilling, it’s like that times a thousand. Pretty much all the built up heat escapes, every time you take a peek. This is what I learned from the aforementioned book. And it was worth every ounce of lugging of that book I did.

After 20 minutes, go back out to the grill with your instant read thermometer. Open the grill, take a moment to admire the beautiful mahogany skin on the chicken, then stick the thermometer in the center of the biggest thigh without touching bone. It should register at least 165ºF to be done [if you don’t have a thermometer, pierce the biggest thigh with a cake tester or sharp knife point—if the juices run clear, it’s done]. If not, cover the grill and let it cook another 5 minutes or so and check again. But it probably will be done after 20 minutes, unless you didn’t have enough coals or they weren’t completely hot when you started.

Transfer chicken to serving platter, let it rest for a few minutes as you pull everything else together and, well, serve.

Kitchen Notes

First, this chicken came out wonderfully moist and tender. Cooking the chicken skin side up lets the fat under the skin naturally baste the chicken as it roasts.

Finding ingredients. Hoisin sauce, widely used in Chinese cooking, is also known as Peking sauce. It keeps indefinitely when refrigerated, and you’ll find plenty of uses for it. You’ll find hoisin sauce—and the sesame oil and rice vinegar—at Asian markets or many supermarkets.

Grating fresh ginger. Ginger is very fibrous; trying to slice through the fibers is next to impossible. Here’s what I do. I slice 1/4″ disks, peel them, then quarter them. When you smash these with the side of a knife, you now have lots of short little fibers that separate easily with further mincing. Done. Or you can take the easy way and use a grater, but then there’s the disadvantage of leaving lots of ginger on the grater.

Cayenne pepper. This is the thing I would do differently. The recipe called for 1/2 teaspoon of dried red pepper flakes, which I used. Unfortunately, pepper flakes are more effective in delivering heat when cooked in oil or sauces. Here I only tasted a little spice when I hit an occasional flake. Cayenne pepper distributes the heat throughout the sauce.

Starting charcoal. I used to use lighter fluid until a neighbor browbeat me into getting a starter chimney. It works like a charm—a couple of balled up sheets of newspaper, a match and 20 minutes later, your coals are ready to go. And your coals—and food—don’t smell like lighter fluid.

Also this week in Blue Kitchen

Has the grocery list become more important than the guest list? A little perspective on the importance of food at WTF? Random food for thought.

A sax player supreme. Early Coltrane at What’s on the kitchen boombox?