Experimental conditions

Four chefs from four restaurants were given two chickens from the store in advance to work on, and two more before the battle. From one they had to prepare grilled chicken, from the second - any signature dish that would clearly tell us about their restaurant. Chefs were allowed to cook the grill in their restaurant and make preparations for the second course, but ultimately finish cooking it in the kitchen of the Ragout culinary school.

Progress of the experiment

At the appointed hour, the cooks, some with assistants, found themselves in the kitchen and began to cook. A jury of four tasted the dishes in the next room, not knowing who created them. We chose the juiciest grilled chicken, the most perfect grilled chicken skin, the most delicious grilled chicken, the most beautiful grilled chicken and evaluated the author's dish according to several criteria at once: taste, idea and creativity, technological execution.

Anna Maslovskaya

Chief editor of the “Food” section of Afisha Daily, author of the Instagram blog Annamaslovskaya

Ekaterina Drozdova

Ideologist and owner of the Ragout cooking school

Alexander Ilyin

Restaurant columnist for Afisha Daily

Alexander Proshenkov

Chef at Saxon & Parole restaurant

Participants in the battle

Mark Statsenko - brand chef of Chicken Run, Dmitry Romanovsky - chef of the Tsypa-Tsypa cafe, Alexey Malofeev - sous-chef of AQ Chicken, Kristina Chernyakhovskaya - chef of the Iskra cafe and Alexey Nikonov - second chef of the Iskra cafe "

"Chick-chick"

Chef Dmitry Romanovsky

“Tsypa-Tsypa” is a project of the White Rabbit Family restaurant holding and its brand chef Vladimir Mukhin at the Danilovsky market. All dishes are prepared from farmed chicken near Moscow in an open kitchen. The menu has a dozen dishes, from salads to hot dishes, but the main thing is grilled chicken. You can choose the size of the chicken: whole (550 RUR/530 RUR), half (300 RUR/290 RUR) or quarter (160 RUR/150 RUR). Chicken is served in warm pita bread with your choice of sauces: “Honey Mustard”, “Spicy BBQ”, “Lemon Mayo” or ketchup. In addition to chicken, there is chicken shawarma (150 RUR), spring roll with chicken (190 RUR), chicken broth (80 RUR), cucumber salad with miso (190 RUR), French fries (120 RUR) and an egg in Scottish (110 rubles).

Cafe "Iskra"

Chefs Kristina Chernyakhovskaya and Alexey Nikonov

Led by two chefs - Kristina Chernyakhovskaya and Alexey Nikonov - the cafe on Pokrovka prepares food primarily from chicken and eggs, moderately simple and intelligent, often with an Asian accent. The signature dish is grilled chicken. Every week the chickens are marinated in a new brine and served with different sauces and side dishes. Now on the menu is grilled chicken in Korean marinade. There are three serving sizes: quarter for 450 rubles, half for 800 rubles. or whole for 1450 rub. Also on the menu: salad with glass noodles, cabbage, daikon, chicken and peanuts (RUR 350), smoked chicken sandwich with celery, lettuce and bleu cheese sauce (RUR 350), smoked gizzards and hearts (RUR 200) , Asian dumplings with chicken, bacon and fried onions (300 RUR), nasi goreng (450 RUR) and chicken curry with lemongrass (450 RUR).

AQ Chicken

Sous-chef Alexey Malofeev

On the menu of chef Adrian Ketglas's second restaurant, all dishes, except desserts, are made from chicken. Appetizers include beet tartare with smoked chicken and horseradish icebergs (RUR 390), tandoori chicken with mint-yogurt sauce (RUR 490), lentil salad, chicken confit and red pepper mousse (RUR 550), paella buckwheat with chicken (530 rubles), Chinese-style rooster with vegetables (650 rubles) and smoked chicken tiradito with avocado and mango (550 rubles).

Chicken Run

Brand Chef Mark Statsenko

The founders of the Chicken Run cafe - restaurateur Mikhail Gordeev ("Fani Kabani") and chef Mark Statsenko - spent six months searching for the perfect chicken. The entire menu of the project is based on Russian chicken meat and the original recipes of brand chef Statsenko. Besides the chickens themselves, an important feature of the place is the high speed of serving (5 minutes) of dishes. The menu includes: hot dog with chicken sausage (250 rubles), tacos with chopped chicken (220 rubles), shawarma with chicken (190 rubles), Korean chicken and giblets lasagna with pickled champignons, buckwheat chips and kimuchi sauce (340 rub.), wings (210 rub.) and grilled chicken. You can order it in half (390 rubles), take a breast (230 rubles) or a leg (210 rubles).

First round - grilled chicken

Kristina Chernyakhovskaya and her grilled chicken

Mark Statsenko and sour cream

Alexey Malofeev

4 out of 8

Sour cream Chicken Chicken Run

The chefs of four completely different restaurants met in one kitchen - for this alone it was definitely worth starting all this.

Mark Statsenko cuts his sour cream chicken.

Thai grilled chicken (“Chicky Chicken”)

Winner of the “Best Taste” nomination and the “Ideal Brine” special award

Dmitry Romanovsky:“Do you know Thai tom yum soup? We add its ingredients to the chicken: kaffir lime leaves, galangal, chilli, lemongrass, cilantro, tomatoes, mushrooms, coconut milk, onions, garlic and tamarind. The chicken is marinated for 48 hours and goes into the oven - first cooked on low heat and then at 200 degrees to get a crispy crust.”

Alexander Proshenkov:“The color is good. The breast was very tasty and the chicken overall was perfectly salted and cooked.”

Ekaterina Drozdova:“I like the taste, the meat is juicy, and the color of the chicken is nice.”

Anna Maslovskaya:“It’s good on all counts: juicy, bright in taste, perfectly marinated. Of course, we are hungry now, but it seems really tasty.”

Alexander Ilyin:“Slightly starchy taste, but I wouldn’t say it’s unpleasant. Cooked perfectly."

All the jury members agreed that they would eat it again.

Chicken in Korean marinade (Iskra cafe)

Winner of the nomination “Best Skin”

Kristina Chernyakhovskaya:“The chicken is marinated for several days in our proprietary mixture of Korean sauces. Served with white miso paste sauce (with sesame oil, pear, apple, shallots and garlic) and ranch dressing (with yogurt, mint and zest).”

Anna Maslovskaya:“The meat is dry, not comparable to the first one, but it has a crispier crust, good.”

Alexander Proshenkov:“This chicken has less flavor, I think due to the marinade. Slightly overexposed and therefore a bit dry. But the crust is great, it’s more like a grill.”

Alexander Ilyin:“Well made, but a bit dry.”

Ekaterina Drozdova:“The crust is wonderful, but the meat itself is also a little dry for me.”

Moroccan grilled chicken with couscous and pear chutney (AQ Chicken)

Unfortunately, everything was ruined by the sauce on the chicken not having time to bake.

Alexey Malofeev:“The chicken is soaked for 12 hours in brine (salt, lemon and water), and then cooked for two hours at 180 degrees. Every 15 minutes we add a glaze (honey, ketchup, soy sauce, garlic, thyme and rosemary) to the chicken to give it a juicy and beautiful color.”

Alexander Proshenkov:“This chicken is cooked just right, so the meat is tender and juicy. But they went too far with the sauce, there was too much of it.”

Anna Maslovskaya:“The presentation is beautiful, rich. The meat is tender and soft, but because of the sauce, I can't taste the chicken itself. You need to clean off the sauce, then it will be good, try it. But now it seems like it’s like pouring ketchup on an oyster.”

Alexander Ilyin:“The chicken itself is cooked well, but the taste of the sauce overpowers the taste of the meat itself. That same classic home story when it is believed that the more sauce or marinade, the better. In reality, this is not always fair, and this is what spoiled it. If you remove the sauce, there will be no flavor left. The Chinese pour their bright sauces into their food to hide the taste of a bad product, but that’s why.”

Ekaterina Drozdova:“The sauce is too provocative, but the color of the chicken is beautiful. It seems to me that grilled chicken should have the taste of chicken, with a maximum of spices and garlic. What I expect from chicken is the flavor of the meat, not the marinade or sauce. I think it’s important not to overwhelm the taste of the chicken; it shouldn’t go into the sauce or marinade.”

Chicken Run

Winner of the “Beauty” and “Juicy” nominations

Mark Statsenko:“The chicken is marinated in a proprietary sauce (yogurt, cardamom, ginger and curry), brushed with sour cream, spices and fried onions are added and then placed in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 40 minutes.”

Ekaterina Drozdova:“There's no confusing sauce, the chicken is just awesome. It’s very interesting who prepared it.”

Alexander Proshenkov:“The chicken is gorgeous, perfectly cooked, but the taste is inferior to the first.”

Anna Maslovskaya:“Delicious, perfectly cooked. The meat and crust are wonderful, you can taste the sour cream. The chicken itself is of different shades, beautiful.”

Alexander Ilyin:“The chicken is excellent, juicy and tasty. Prepared perfectly. Feels like the freshest grilled chicken ever.”

Second round - signature chicken dish

“Chicken baked in hay with vegetables” by the chef of the “Tsypa-Tsypa” cafe, as you can see, was named so not just for beauty.

Vegetables for the second course of the Tsypa-Tsypa cafe.

The chicken, coated with butter and parsley, is sealed in the pan with dough and hay.

Kristina Chernyakhovskaya brushes the chicken for the second course with a mixture of kvass wort, soy sauce and maple syrup.

Mark Statsenko and his chicken steaks with celery root.

6 out of 15

Why was the pan sealed with dough? “So that the chicken doesn’t run away - that’s it. Well, to create pressure, that’s two,” answers chef Dmitry Romanovsky.

Ragout culinary school teachers pose for photos with our stars.

Alexey Malofeev, sous-chef of AQ Chicken, looks exactly like a Swede, right?

Chicken steaks with celery root

11 out of 15

12 out of 15

13 out of 15

14 out of 15

15 out of 15

Confit ham with polenta mousse (AQ Chicken)

Verdict: “played with flavors - and it turned out to be a hodgepodge”

Alexey Malofeev:“The chicken is salted for two hours, then cooked in a convection oven for two hours at 90 degrees, after which the meat is separated from the bone. The ham is served with roasted black chanterelles, sorrel, polenta mousse, roasted tomato sauce and mushroom sauce (with cream, oyster mushrooms and mushrooms). Garnished with truffle salt, leek powder and parsley oil.”

Anna Maslovskaya:“It looks like the third grilled chicken, but that’s probably a coincidence. A classic combination of chicken, mushrooms and creamy flavors with a modern twist that unfortunately didn't quite work out."

Alexander Proshenkov:“Here we decided to play on a combination of classic creamy and mushroom flavors, while also adding something exotic - polenta mousse. But for me the chicken is too salty, although I like salty things. In my opinion, they played with flavors and it turned out to be a hodgepodge. Individually, each ingredient is inexpressive.”

Alexander Ilyin:“They’ve obviously gone overboard with the tastes, and it’s unclear why. Completely inexpressive: in the end, neither the chicken nor the mushrooms were revealed.”

Ekaterina Drozdova:“For me, chicken is very salty.”

“Chicken baked in hay with vegetables” (“Tsypa-Tsypa”)

"Best Fragrance" and a possible winner if not for a technological error

Dmitry Romanovsky:“Place the chicken coated in butter and parsley in a saucepan. The pan is closed with a lid, and its edges along the entire perimeter are covered with dough and hay. For what? So that the chicken doesn't run away - that's it. Well, to create pressure - that's two. The moisture boils, the bird languishes in its own juice and is saturated with the aroma of hay. Cook at 180–200 degrees for two hours. I serve it with bechamel sauce and vegetables.”

Anna Maslovskaya:“Do you smell what aroma? How subtle, how pleasant. And beautiful. It seems rustic, but no, it’s more elegant.”

Alexander Ilyin:“A very interesting idea and beautiful presentation, so touching and naive. Obviously tastier than the first course. Here, finally, the creamy base played perfectly.”

Ekaterina Drozdova:“What a beauty, the combination of vegetables is wonderful. But you can’t serve boiled skin, you can’t.”

Alexander Proshenkov:“Very tasty, the idea is just great. An excellent seasonal dish - so summer in a plate. There was just a small mistake - the cooking was uneven, large pieces of chicken turned out to be raw.”

Anna Maslovskaya:“Exactly, I cut the second piece - raw. What a shame, it could have been a winner.”

Chicken Steak with Celery Root (Chicken Run)

Winner of the nomination “Best Author’s Dish”, according to Ilyin and Drozdova

Mark Statsenko:“I first sent my chicken to the bathhouse. The marinade is still the same - proprietary Chicken Run sauce made from yogurt, cardamom, ginger and curry. Cooked at the same 180 degrees for about 40 minutes, and served with smoked green onions, celery and fried onion puree.”

Anna Maslovskaya:“Real chicken steak, excellent. I think this is ideal for those who like to take one large piece of meat.”

Ekaterina Drozdova:“I think it’s very good gastropub food. A laconic, understandable, complete and logical dish, each component is cooked perfectly. And the steak is really good."

Alexander Ilyin:“Mm, cabbage! This is the most delicious chicken meat ever served. You know, this is the case when at a steakhouse you ask for a well-done steak, and they say to him: “Please order chicken instead.” I liked that the vegetables became the main part of the dish, and the chicken took its rightful place - it became a side dish. Chicken is as common as potatoes - no one takes it seriously. Sure, it can be fun to work with, but bringing smoked green onions, celery and fried onion puree to the forefront, and putting chicken steak next to it as a side dish is quite unexpected. A clever idea."

Alexander Proshenkov:“Excellent steak and accompaniment. The breast meat here is cooked beautifully.”

Chicken with toasted romaine, cucumbers, buckwheat (“Iskra”)

Winner of the nomination “Best Author’s Dish”, according to Maslovskaya and Proshenkov

Kristina Chernyakhovskaya:“The chicken is marinated for 28 hours in a saline solution, brushed with kvass wort, soy sauce, maple syrup and baked in an oven preheated to 90 degrees for 40–50 minutes. The low cooking temperature ensures the chicken is juicy, and the chicken is basted every 10 minutes to ensure a crispy crust. Served with green buckwheat, toasted romaine, cucumbers, yogurt-based sauce and yuzu sauce.”

Anna Maslovskaya:“A beautiful dish - it looks not simple, but also not complicated, original and confident. You immediately understand that this is an author's dish, but at the same time the author, the chef, is relaxed in the right sense, he does not need a huge plate with empty edges to indicate his seriousness. Sasha (Proshenkov), you have the same approach, you should like this dish, I think.

It's chicken on a bed of greens, and I love grass, salads, fresh flavors, crunch. There's a lot of it here. Buckwheat is soft - I don’t think there was an idea to make it the crunchiest element. The chicken tastes like smoked sausage cheese - what kind of marinade is this? I want to know how this magic is made. I want to finish it, although I no longer have the strength. This dish comes first for me.”

Alexander Proshenkov:“You’re right, this approach is close to me, I think this is my favorite. The chicken was cooked beautifully, nice smoky flavor and great accompaniments, especially the toasted romaine. Here, as in the third course, the breast is cooked perfectly.”

Alexander Ilyin:“Green buckwheat seems out of place here to me. I liked the third dish better, it’s number one for me.”

Anna Maslovskaya:“Yes, her skin was really perfect, but her meat was dry.”

Kristina Chernyakhovskaya, chef at Iskra:“I think it’s not entirely correct to refer to the original product, but the chicken is really different from what we cook at Iskra.” Before the competition, we rehearsed on our own; the method of preparing it and the marinade were absolutely the same. But we couldn’t test the preparation on competition chicken, because we marinate it for 3 days. We were sure that using the same marinade and cooking method, we would get grilled chicken like in a cafe. She looked absolutely normal. Of course, we could take our own, but that would be dishonest, because we have them marinated for weeks.”

“Yes, we would all like to take ours.” ( Laughs.)

Anna Maslovskaya:“By the way, the editorial office of Afisha Daily is located next to the Danilovsky market, and I sometimes buy grilled chicken at Tsype-Tsypa. And what’s interesting is that the chicken we tried today turned out to be much tastier than the one I bought at the market. But it’s probably difficult for you to comment on this, because you are a completely new boss of the project. Is there any difference in the cooking method?

“Yes, I’ve been working recently, but the cooking method is absolutely the same. I can say for sure that now the chicken you will get at Tsype-Tsypa on Danilovsky will be as tasty as the one you tried today.”

Anna Maslovskaya:“And the third grilled chicken with a sauce that prevented us from tasting the chicken was prepared by AQ Chicken? The abundance of sauce really confused us.”

Alexander Proshenkov:“Moreover, the chicken was cooked correctly, but the sauce overwhelmed the taste of the meat and was quite aggressive.”

Alexey Malofeev, sous-chef of AQ Chicken:“What makes our grilled chicken different is that we not only bake it, but also coat it with glaze to achieve color and rich taste. We bake the chicken for 2 hours and coat it 3-4 times during cooking.”

Alexander Ilyin:“The glaze didn’t have time to bake, and there was so much of it that it overpowered the taste of the chicken and the overall composition. There could be anything under the glaze, even pancakes, and the taste would be the same. It’s a shame because the chicken itself was cooked well.”

Results: signature dishes

Alexander Proshenkov:“The polenta entrée idea (AQ Chicken) is gorgeous in itself, it has the perfect classic combination of mushrooms, chicken and a creamy base. But we agreed that the dish was oversaturated. Everyone unanimously liked the idea of ​​the second signature chicken dish (“Chicken Chicken”). The dish is amazing, but when I turned over the large pieces, I saw raw meat.”

Ekaterina Drozdova:“Moreover, the breast was cooked evenly, and when I turned over the larger pieces, I also saw raw meat.”

Alexander Ilyin:“And I got a perfectly cooked breast, I was delighted.”

Mark Statsenko, chef of Chicken Run:“The problem is technical. My grilled chicken was in the oven for 20 minutes, and I was surprised, to say the least, when I saw that nothing had happened to it. I had to finish preparing and serving it to you later than planned.”

Dmitry Romanovsky, chef of the Tsypa-Tsypa cafe:"I completely agree. The equipment here is more household, but with the usual one, like in “Tsypa”, you already know for sure in what time and at what degrees the chicken will definitely be cooked.”

Alexander Proshenkov:“The third signature dish (Chicken Run) for me is the perfect gastropub dish. The breast was cooked beautifully. And Alexander Ilyin suggested that the idea of ​​the dish was to make celery the main product, and chicken breast as a side dish. Did we guess correctly?

Alexander Ilyin:“I think it's witty. Chicken is a rather banal product compared to celery root, at least in Russia. It's truly original to have celery as a main dish and a carefully cooked steak as a side dish.”

Mark Statsenko, chef of Chicken Run:“Thank you, the idea was read absolutely correctly, this is the essence and complexity of the dish.”

Alexander Proshenkov:“The third and fourth courses were the best, but the second could have shared this first place with them, if not for a technical force majeure. It's a pity".

Dmitry Romanovsky: “And raw foodism is now, by the way, in trend.”

Alexander Proshenkov:“Personally, of all the dishes, I liked the fourth signature chicken the most. The only thing I didn’t really understand was buckwheat.”

Ekaterina Drozdova:“And it seemed to me that buckwheat was not needed here.”

Kristina Chernyakhovskaya:“Thank you, we just wanted to make the original dish simple, to show that there are vegetables in the sauce, buckwheat, salad and chicken. Roughly speaking, the food is in a canteen, but prepared using professional equipment. We tried making the buckwheat more crispy, but when served this way it took too much attention. So we just soaked green buckwheat in water and microwaved it.”

Fragrant, very tasty grilled chicken will be obtained in the oven: recipes on the grill or grill!

Cooking juicy and delicious grilled chicken at home is not at all difficult if you have a very ordinary oven. Just pick up fresh, raw chicken at the store, bring it home and open our recipe with step-by-step photos that will clearly show you what the cooking process looks like.

• one whole chicken
• favorite spices

Thaw your chicken, then generously sprinkle it with the spices you like. Don’t be afraid to overdo it: it’s impossible to spoil chicken with spices, the main thing is to choose spices that will go well with each other.

Rub the chicken with spices, distributing them evenly over the entire surface of the dish, and leave in this position for half an hour.

To prevent the legs from getting in the way, you can tie them using regular threads or using long stalks of green onions.

Place the whole chicken on the spit and place it in the oven, preheated to a temperature of at least 200 degrees. Select the grill function and bake for about an hour. When the chicken is ready, remove it from the oven, remove it from the spit and serve. You can decorate the dish with vegetables or herbs.

Recipe 2: grilled chicken in the oven (with photos step by step)

• 1-1.5 kg - chicken
• 2 teaspoons - salt
• 2 teaspoons - basil (dried)
• 3 teaspoons - mayonnaise
• 3 teaspoons - mustard
• to taste - red pepper (chili)
• to taste - black pepper

First, wash the chicken. Place the carcass on a towel or napkin to dry slightly.

Then rub the chicken carcass with black pepper and salt both inside and outside. Leave the chicken to soak for twenty minutes. You can use spices for grilled chicken (marjoram, nutmeg, garlic, thyme).

While the chicken is soaking in the spices, prepare the sauce for it. Take a bowl and combine mayonnaise with mustard. Then add dried basil and generously sprinkle with red pepper. Stir the mixture.

Spread the prepared chicken carcass generously with sauce. Then put it on a plate and put it in the refrigerator for another half an hour (marinate).

Preheat the oven. Place the chicken on the grill. The baking temperature should be from 180°C to 200°C. Roast the chicken for about one and a half to two hours. To prevent the fat from burning, pour a little water into a baking tray and place it down under the chicken. Pierce it with a knife; if the juice is light, the chicken is ready, but if there is blood, then not.

Serve the finished chicken hot, placing it on a platter with potatoes and raw vegetables.

Recipe 3, simple: grilled chicken with garlic in the oven

• chicken - 1 pc.;
• garlic - 3 cloves;
• salt, pepper, spices - to taste;
• hot pepper - optional;
• water - 1 glass.

It is more convenient to place the wings in the slits on the chicken breast so that they do not bulge to the sides.

Prepare a rack for cooking chicken. Pour some water into it.

Place the chicken on a rack and place it in an oven preheated to 200 degrees.

Bon appetit! Now you know how to cook grilled chicken in the oven!

Recipe 4: grilled chicken in the oven on a wire rack (with photo)

This is a very simple oven grilled chicken recipe, just choose your favorite spices!

• Chicken - 1 piece
• Seasoning for chicken - 20 grams
• Salt - To taste

Defrost the chicken, wash it under running water, and dry it with a towel.

Rub the carcass on all sides with seasoning and salt, not forgetting the inside.

Wrap the chicken in cling film quite tightly, you can even tie it. And leave it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, or better yet, overnight.

We take out the chicken, and very carefully and tightly tie its legs with twine, and the wings too. So that it doesn’t come undone while cooking!

Bake in a slightly preheated oven (160 degrees is enough) for 1 hour 20 minutes.

Ready! Serve, garnished with fruits and fresh vegetables, right in the center of the festive table!

Recipe 5, step by step: how to cook chicken in the oven

Grilled chicken cooked on a spit is evenly baked, and home-cooked chicken is tastier than store-bought chicken. Use salt and spices to taste. To cook it in the oven, you will need a grill spit or a special stand. I used a spit.

• Chicken - 1 pc.
• Salt, ground black pepper - to taste
• Vegetable oil - 50 ml
• Spices for chicken - 2 tsp.

Wash the chicken under cold water and dry.

Lubricate with vegetable oil.

Sprinkle with salt and spices. I have salt - already with spices.

Thread the chicken onto a skewer and secure. We tie the legs with threads.

We attach the wings to the carcass using toothpicks. Place the spit with the chicken in the oven and place the tray.

Bake in the “Grill” mode over medium heat until done. We determine readiness as follows: pierce the chicken with a knife, if a light liquid comes out, the chicken is ready. My chicken weighed 1.4 kg and the cooking time was about 2 hours, including the time to preheat the oven.

Our grilled chicken in the oven is ready. Serve with pita bread, pickled onions and fresh vegetables. Bon appetit!

Recipe 6: Grilled chicken with spices, cooked in the oven

• chicken 2 kg
• water 2 l
• salt 60 g
• allspice peas 1 tsp.
• coriander, turmeric, chili, ground allspice, bay leaf to taste
• vegetable oil 2 tbsp. lie

Take a large chicken. Remove excess fat so that it does not flood the oven.

Cook and cool the marinade. Add salt to it at the rate of 30 g per 1 liter of water, bay leaf, allspice. Place the chicken in the cooled marinade.

There is a small pressure on top, such as a plate, so that the chicken does not float. Cover with a lid and place in the refrigerator for a day.

Take it out, wipe it with a paper towel and rub the inside with spices. You can choose the herb according to your taste. Place it on a spit on a fork, secure it with disks on both sides and put it in the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes. Place a baking sheet covered with foil under the chicken on the bottom shelf so that do not dirty the oven.

Step 1: cut up the chicken.

Step 2: add spices.

Step 3: Grill the whole chicken.

Step 4: Serve the whole grilled chicken.

You can marinate the chicken in wine, onion, kefir, soy sauce, etc. in advance.

Summer time, the time of warmth, outdoor recreation and vacations, makes “fresh air cooking” relevant. And the first thing that comes to mind is grills, barbecues, barbecues...

Open fire cooking is a simple art, and it has simple secrets. Once you've mastered it, you'll never be confused again. For example, grilled chicken is one of the most popular dishes in this series. Can you cook?

Firstly, on an open fire (grill, barbecue), and secondly, at home (in the oven, microwave, on grilled pans). And do you know what their features are? Let's figure it out.

Let's start by cooking grilled chicken on specialized equipment - a barbecue or grill with a barbecue grill. Yes, yes, definitely in the fresh air.

So, grilled chicken recipes.

How to Grill Chicken on a BBQ Grill

The advantage of grilling chicken is that everyone can choose the piece they like. But here’s the problem: it’s difficult to get all the pieces of chicken to turn out equally well. This is one of the reasons why people prefer to fry a whole chicken, or at least cut the chicken in half.

And yet we will try to fry chicken pieces - breasts, thighs, wings and legs - all together. And let's try to understand how to do this with the best result on the grid.

1. It all starts with buying good chicken. Of course, poultry is ideal, but most likely you will have to be content with a broiler or a ready-made set of chicken meat for grilling. Such, for example, as in the picture.

2. Another point that is mandatory for grilling chicken is the marinade. There are many different and wonderful sauces, but the most common is barbecue sauce.

There is a point of view that you need to marinate grilled chicken before cooking, generously grease it and put it in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours. But it’s even better to marinate overnight. However, if you intend to grill only chicken breasts, 2 hours is really enough, but if you want to grill the legs or the whole chicken, then more than 4 hours is better (ideally 8).

3. Prepare the chicken pieces: Trim off large pieces of fat and loose, unnecessary pieces of skin - this will reduce the risk of “fires” on the grill, and you will get beautiful, presentable pieces of grilled chicken. Wash them and then dry them with paper towels.

4. Now you need to season the chicken. This can be a mixture of seasonings: squeeze 2-3 cloves of garlic, hot red and black pepper, dry herbs to your taste into a small amount of vegetable oil (dill, parsley, coriander, oregano, thyme, paprika, etc.) This needs to be done not only over the entire visible surface of the chicken, but also under its skin, since the skin can prevent the flavor of the spices from penetrating into the meat. Don't be shy with the seasonings. Their excess will still disappear under the influence of fire.

Place these seasoned chicken pieces in the refrigerator for an hour or two (or more). If this is not possible, don’t worry, they fry it this way too.

5. Prepare the grill. Make sure that not only is the cooking surface clean, but that there is no grease on the bottom of the grill. In addition to the fact that its presence will lead to a tasteless result, old fat is also harmful to health. To do this, preheat the grill at high temperature and make sure that all excess burns in the lower part of the grill. Grease the grate with fresh oil and load the grill with charcoal. Let it burn a little, get red hot, and then you will fry it.

6. Now we come to the most important part of the process. Large pieces of chicken cook more slowly than smaller pieces. This problem can be solved this way: first put large pieces on the grill, and then gradually add medium ones and, even later, small ones.

But you can achieve the same effect in another way - by concentrating the hot coals on one side of the grill. We'll get a warm side and a hot side, and we'll manipulate the pieces just by distributing them differently. But this is if we have a charcoal grill. If the grill is gas, then we will increase the heat on one burner and reduce it on the other.

After adjusting the heat level, it's time to place the chicken on the grill. Place larger pieces closer to the high temperature, and the smaller the pieces, the further away from it. Speaking of our specific pieces, the breasts will be closest to the high heat, then the legs, and finally the wings - in the most difficult places for the fire to reach (in the corners, as a rule).

So, having set everything up, leave the meat alone for about 45 minutes. But don't forget to adjust the process if necessary.

7. One of the problems with grilling chicken is...- this is the unpredictable behavior of fat and fire. As the meat heats up, the fat turns into liquid and starts to drip out. This dry frying, by the way, is healthier than sautéing meat. But you must control the “flambé effect,” simply put, the burning of fat and even meat. To reduce the risk of fire, from time to time bring pieces of meat to an empty corner of the grill and turn them over the fire for a few seconds.

If a fire does occur, remove the meat from the grill, extinguish the fire in the grill, and remove the grill. And only after the “accident” has been eliminated, you can continue cooking the meat further.

8. About 15 minutes after the chicken starts grilling turn the pieces over to the other side. By this time, the chicken should become firm and elastic, and the side of meat contact with “active heat” should acquire a beautiful brown color and softness. So it's time to fry the other side. In another 15 minutes it will be ready (check).

To ensure that the meat is cooked not only on the outside, but also on the inside, you need to reduce the heat and leave the undercooked pieces on the fire. Low heat ensures that the surface of the chicken is not burned or overcooked.

About 30 minutes after you start grilling the chicken, it should be mostly done. Then it's time to use the BBQ sauce. If you are not going to use it, then continue cooking the meat until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 75 degrees Celsius (if using a thermometer), or until the meat can be easily pierced with a knife or fork. And this is another 10-15 minutes (more if the chicken is whole).

9. If barbecue sauce is in your plans, reduce the heat (if the grill is with gas burners, just turn it down, if the grill is on charcoal, close the vents) to a temperature of approximately 130 degrees C - this is the time for the sugar to burn. After this, coat the chicken in several layers of sauce, covering the chicken with a thick, sticky film.

10. Keep the chicken on the fire cook for a while longer, then check for doneness as indicated in step 8 and remove the meat from the grill. Don't overcook the chicken, it will dry out the meat!

Cover the cooked meat with a lid and let it rest for about 5 minutes.

How to cook grilled chicken at home

Let us immediately note that you will not be able to get real grilled chicken at home. Alas. Unless you smoke directly on the grill, in the barbecue or directly on the parquet. However, if you zoom in, it turns out that it’s also quite a lot.

There are several ways to cook grilled chicken at home. Firstly, in the microwave, if it has a grill mode. Secondly, in the oven. And finally, on a grilled frying pan. Let's try to prepare some very tasty recipes.

Grilled chicken in Tandoori oven

Recipe ingredients for 4 servings

Chicken 1.5 kg, cut into portions
Sauce. Half a cup of yogurt, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, salt to taste, vegetable oil.
Seasonings: 1 tbsp. a spoonful of chopped garlic, ginger, ground cumin, 1 teaspoon of ground coriander, half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper, a pinch of cardamom, black pepper, a couple of dry cloves.
For garnish: fresh cilantro, cucumber, red onion, tomatoes, lemon wedges

How to cook grilled chicken in the oven

Prick the entire chicken with a fork. Then use a sharp knife to make slanting cuts to allow the marinade to penetrate inside the carcass.

Mix yogurt, lemon juice or vinegar, seasonings and salt, then brush the mixture onto the chicken, rubbing thoroughly several times. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. Remove chicken from refrigerator at least 30 minutes before cooking.

Then remove the chicken from the marinade, squeeze lightly and brush with oil. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Place the chicken on a greased rack and grill for 25 to 30 minutes, turning a couple of times, until the chicken releases its juices and a knife slides easily into the meat.

Place a baking sheet with boiled water under the grill so that the fat drips there.

Serve with cilantro sprigs and cucumber slices, red onion, tomato and lemon.

Per serving (without side dish): about 300 calories.

Grilled chicken - skewer recipe

Another popular grilled chicken recipe. How is it different from the previous ones? The fact that the chicken is fried whole, and the “romantic arsenal” - the skewer on which it is skewered, soaked in the marinade.

And then everything is as usual: place it on a greased grate, turn on the “grill”, place a baking sheet with water under the grate and enjoy the smells of cooking for about an hour. After which we greedily tear the delicious cooked meat with our teeth or, decorously wielding cutlery, put the chopped pieces into our mouths (depending on our upbringing and temperament).

Marinades can be very different - that’s where there is freedom of expression and no restrictions on tastes! Among the most common and classic: mustard-cream (sour cream) with garlic and dry seasonings.

Advice. If you are frying a whole chicken, be sure to tie the legs together with twine. Why this is necessary, as well as other secrets of whole fried chicken, read HERE.

Grilled chicken - recipe on a can

This is a rather old recipe from the “remedies at hand in the absence of financial resources” series. The recipe is ingenious in technology, invented at a time when not only a grill, but even a skewer was a bit of a problem, and I really wanted a whole baked chicken a la grill at home. So the “bank” technology simply had to appear.

And the recipe itself is delicious, it has turned into a real culinary classic. Usually it uses fresh strong mustard, rich sour cream, garlic, a few peas of allspice, bay leaf and dry seasonings at the discretion of the hostess.

Preparation. Wash the chicken, then pat dry with paper towels, rub the whole chicken with garlic and salt, coat with mustard and sprinkle with a mixture of dry seasonings. Place the chicken in a plastic bag for marinating and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

The jar should be filled halfway or a little more with water and throw in allspice with a couple of bay leaves. The chicken removed from the marinade and slightly pressed out should be placed on the neck of the jar and placed in a preheated oven. The secret of taste is that the chicken will be soaked not only with the “fried” marinade, but also with the seasonings that are mixed with water in the jar. Shortly before the end of the cooking process, about 20 minutes, you need to coat the chicken with oil mixed with sour cream, if the sour cream is not fatty enough, or only with sour cream. Sour cream can be replaced with yogurt.

This simple grilled chicken recipe will delight everyone who tries it.

Grilled chicken - microwave recipe

A microwave, if it is more or less “advanced”, provides a grill mode, the grill is built into it. Cooking chicken in it is not a difficult task, although, as experience shows, for some reason it turns out tastier in the oven.
First, as described above, the chicken must be placed in the marinade, then squeezed out and placed on the grill rack of the microwave oven. Under it, just like in the oven, be sure to place a baking tray with water to collect fat. You should fry in combi-2 mode, not for long, 10-15 minutes on each side. That's all, actually. However, sometimes the chicken turns out to be unprepared and requires a little finishing in a preheated oven for a couple of minutes. What's the point, you ask? In saving time.

And finally, another way to cook grilled chicken in your home kitchen is to use a grilled frying pan. In essence, this is an ordinary frying pan with a “grill effect”, primarily external, since stripes remain throughout the meat, as if from a grate. Fat drips into these grooves, just as it would on a grill. As for the taste... it's just taste. Fried chicken.

Fried meat will always taste better than boiled or steamed meat. Of course, the delicious crispy crust is so worth it! And the smell... Scientists have noticed that the aroma of frying foods causes much more profuse salivation than with other methods of heat treatment. In addition, the meat can also be marinated, which will make it not only more tender, but also add a variety of flavors. And if we are talking about frying in the open air, when the product smells of smoke, eating it is a heavenly pleasure!

Current advice

In order for you to get a truly tasty recipe for any method of preparing it, it starts with the correct selection of the carcass itself. Ideally, a chicken that is a little more than six months old is suitable. Among the older generation, alas, the meat is already a bit tough and not so juicy. Of course, you can also use store-bought chicken legs, but they contain more chemicals than natural products. If you have a choice between store-bought or home-grown poultry, choose the latter, because home-grown chicken always tastes better. Grilling (you can choose a different cooking recipe), of course, will make any dish appetizing. But fresh, not frozen, homemade chicken, moderately fatty, and not blue and bony, is a true gift to the cook, and it is the best way to show off your culinary skills.

And another tip: make a good, tasty marinade. After the texture of meat, this is the second condition for the successful preparation of many dishes. Now about what or where to fry. For example, if you cook grilled chicken in the microwave, the recipe allows you to use the grid-stand that comes with the package. In the open air, it is brought to readiness on a wide grill made of stainless steel. If you have an air fryer on your farm, you can’t ask for anything better. And finally, the oven comes up. True, in order for you to get well-done grilled chicken, the recipe calls for a roasting pan (or you can at least install a half-liter jar). In any case, in order for the meat to have a golden crust, before cooking it must be generously greased with either a special sauce, sour cream or mayonnaise.

on a spit

Let's look at a fairly simple recipe for grilled chicken on a spit. This way you can fry it during a picnic in nature. It is necessary to stock up on firewood and coal (packages for barbecue, kebabs). The sauce can be prepared from the following ingredients: a package of your favorite mayonnaise (at least 250 g), mustard powder - from 1 tablespoon, a head of garlic, 1 lemon, a bag of black pepper (not all of it, sprinkle to taste!), salt, aromatic seasonings and spices (you can buy a package of ready-made ones, especially for chicken). Well, the bird itself, medium size, gutted, washed, dried. Mix mayonnaise with mustard, add crushed garlic (4-5 cloves), spices, salt, then very generously grease the entire carcass on the outside. Rub the inside with lemon juice. Place the bird on a spit, set it over hot coals and roast for about an hour, turning occasionally. It’s better to tie up the legs with wings. To prevent the meat from burning, the bird must be turned constantly 20 minutes before the end of the process. When ready, divide into portions and serve with red wine. The degree of readiness is checked as follows: pierce the carcass in several places with a fork, place a plate. Light juice flows - that's it, you can eat. And the pinkish one - let it cook a little longer.

Air fryer recipe

Here is another recipe for grilled chicken - in an air fryer. For external processing of poultry, the same sauce described in the previous recipe is suitable. But we will stuff it from the inside. To do this, take several sweet and sour apples, peel them, cut them into thin slices. Chop a large onion into half rings. Mix both components, rub the inside of the carcass with salt and add the filling. Place a piece of foil on the grill (place it at the bottom), then the chicken (belly side up) and bake for an hour and a half. Then divide into pieces and serve on a wide, flat platter. Serve with the filling (it will give the meat a piquant taste).

If the crust is important to you, the bird should be fried with the skin on. You can roll it in breadcrumbs before frying - it will turn out great!