Chicken with Awesome BBQ Spice Rub

 

Last year a friend gave me Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube – The BBQ recipe book, which I’ve used several times when we’ve done barbecues at the weekend. During the week, even though we have a gas barbecue so the cooking itself is quick, I don’t want to faff around in the kitchen and am more likely to do something simple like a tuna steak, sausages, or ready-made chilli beef koftas, which my husband loves and work really well on the barbecue.

 

This recipe though is really quick and is something that you can prepare in advance and keep in the cupboard. The full recipe actually involved brining pieces of chicken overnight and then coating them with a “mix of awesomeness”. I decided to skip the brining and use boneless chicken thighs, which are quite thin when you unwrap them so cook really fast. I prepared the mix and rubbed it onto the chicken thighs, which were simply barbecued – and tasted really good.

The recipe for the brining is available online here, and the chef calls the mix by the same name as the one in the recipe book but it is slightly different.

 

For the one I made, you need:

zest of half lemon

zest of one quarter of an orange

3 tbsp. brown sugar

1 tbsp. sea salt

1 tbsp. black pepper

1 tbsp. onion granules

1 tbsp. garlic granules

1 tsp smoked paprika

Optional: 1 tsp chilli powder

 

Scatter the zest onto a baking tray, and bake in a preheated oven at 110C for 10 minutes.

 

Mix the zest with all the other ingredients and use to coat the chicken.

 

 

Barbecue or grill the chicken until cooked through.