The Type Of Chicken Alton Brown Swears By For Grilling
Forget marination. The first step to grilling chicken to perfection is picking the best cut. Any meat connoisseur can go on and on about how important it is to pick the right cut of meat depending on the purpose. Nick's of Calvert suggests your choice of chicken should be pink, for starters, and says drumsticks, boneless breasts, and wings are good options. Jamie Oliver's blog notes how the breast is usually the top choice when it comes to the anatomy of this versatile bird, but that doesn't mean everyone prefers them for their grilling adventures. Take Alton Brown, for example.
Brown takes his grilling seriously. While speaking with Salon on the subject of grilling season in 2020, the "Good Eats" star gave out some tips on how to do it right. According to him, it all starts with a simple grill (he owns several of those) and a trusty thermometer. When the outlet asked him what cuts of meat can be bought instead of chicken breasts, Brown revealed he wouldn't choose breasts at all. So what does make the cut?
Alton Brown thinks chicken thighs give you a leg up
As for which parts of the chicken to use when grilling, there were a couple that Alton Brown sees as cuts above the rest. "I think that the thigh and the leg quarter is the best thing to put on a grill," he told Salon. "And you can usually buy them in big packs because most people want to buy breasts." Brown dislikes chicken breasts because they tend to "dry out fast on a grill."
His love for the fattier chicken thigh runs bone-deep. In fact, he has said his all-time favorite chicken dinner is thighs with smoked paprika, per a Food Network video on YouYube. "The reason why chickens have breasts is because we haven't figured out how to make a chicken with four thighs," he said. Not everyone can cook a chicken to perfection. That is not to say it cannot be done. Though it sounds like Brown might say it cannot be done with breasts but should be tried with thighs.