BBQ chicken

BBQ Chicken | Me & The Moose Truly the best route to BBQ chicken that is deeply flavorful and easy to make, whether grilled outside or roasted in your oven. #meandthemoose #chickenrecipes #BBQchicken #grilling #roasting

A short marinade in olive oil, apple cider vinegar, mustard, and soy sauce followed by the best ever spice rub (seriously, triple the recipe and use it on everything), makes this a BBQ chicken worthy of your most discerning guests.

Take me to the recipe!

BBQ Chicken | Me & The Moose Truly the best route to BBQ chicken that is deeply flavorful and easy to make, whether grilled outside or roasted in your oven. #meandthemoose #chickenrecipes #BBQchicken #grilling #roasting

We’ve used this marinade and rub on all kinds of chicken: breasts, thighs, bone-in, skin-on, boneless, skinless, and an entire chicken. It has worked with every iteration! I was really tired one day and put the sugar in the marinade instead of the rub—still great. My husband likes to put the rub on WITH the marinade and let the whole thing sit for 30 minutes—also great. So if, like me, your attention is divided while trying to make dinner, this is the recipe for you.

BBQ Chicken | Me & The Moose Truly the best route to BBQ chicken that is deeply flavorful and easy to make, whether grilled outside or roasted in your oven. #meandthemoose #chickenrecipes #BBQchicken #grilling #roasting

BBQ Chicken | Me & The Moose Truly the best route to BBQ chicken that is deeply flavorful and easy to make, whether grilled outside or roasted in your oven. #meandthemoose #chickenrecipes #BBQchicken #grilling #roasting

A note on cooking chicken:

• Roast the chicken between 425 and 450. I use the lower temperature for skinless and boneless varieties to avoid drying out the meat. The higher temperature works with the bones and skin, but keep an eye out to ensure that the skin doesn’t burn. A loose piece of foil over top usually does the trick.

• Grill the chicken by heating up the grill on the highest temperature and then turn it down to medium just before putting the chicken on the grill. Cook until the internal temperature is 165 in the fattest part.

BBQ Chicken | Me & The Moose Truly the best route to BBQ chicken that is deeply flavorful and easy to make, whether grilled outside or roasted in your oven. #meandthemoose #chickenrecipes #BBQchicken #grilling #roasting

BBQ Chicken

Yield: 3 lbs chicken
Time: 60-90 minutes, depending on how long you cook your chicken

3 lbs chicken (any type, but I prefer boneless, skinless thighs or a whole spatchcocked chicken)
1/3 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp yellow mustard
1 Tbsp kosher salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp thyme
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp onion powder

Combine the olive oil, apple cider, soy sauce, and yellow mustard. Place chicken in a large container (plastic bag, glass container, mixing bowl, or whatever will hold all of the chicken) and cover with the marinade. Let sit for at least 30 minutes, but up to an hour.

Combine the dry rub ingredients.

Heat the oven to 425-450 (see note above).

Take the chicken out of the marinade, but DO NOT pat dry- we want a little extra liquid. Cover with the spice rub on all sides and massage it into the chicken.

Place on a sheet pan or in a large cooking dish and cook, uncovered, for about 15 minutes (a whole chicken or very large chicken parts will take longer to cook, usually about 45-50 minutes). Check for doneness and cook until the internal temperature reaches 165 in the thickest part of the chicken.

If any sauce remains in the pan, save it for pouring onto the chicken before serving.

Meatless Monday: Black bean dip

Hear me out: Let’s serve dip for dinner tonight. Or in your kids’ lunchboxes tomorrow. And credit where it’s due: This recipe is cribbed almost entirely from M’s dad as black bean dip is one of his signature party dishes.

This gloop is primarily black beans, with just a smidge of cream cheese for richness and some onions, garlic, and spices to make it aromatic. Add in a dash of lime juice for acid, a smattering of shredded cheese on top that gets all melty and crispy in the oven, and you have a quick and hearty dish in about 30 minutes. AND, you can make it an even faster meal if you a small cast-iron or other oven-safe saute pan.

The taste and texture of this dip remind me of refried beans, but better.

You can scoop it into tortillas with some fresh veggies for a meatless dinner that’s full of protein. Or add shredded rotisserie chicken or other leftover proteins from the weekend for an even heartier meal. OR squash this concoction between tortillas for a dinner or lunch quesadilla.

Also, M is very keen on chips and dip as dinner, but I don’t want him to burn out on guacamole as it’s one of our go-to’s. And beans are an excellent source of non-meat protein, so if he’s suddenly off of meat, which toddlers often are, this dip helps to fill him up for a good night’s sleep (hopefully).

Black bean dip

1 Tbsp olive oil
½ large onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp cumin
½ tsp chili powder
¼ tsp coriander
¼ tsp oregano
2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
¼ cup cream cheese
½ tsp kosher salt
1 Tbsp lime juice
1-2 Tbsp water
1-1½ cups shredded cheddar and Monterey jack cheese

Preheat the oven to 400. (I don’t use the broiler for this one because I want it to warm the dip while it melts the cheese and the broiler is a bit too much heat, too fast.)

In a small skillet (bonus if it’s oven safe! You’ll only need one pan!), heat the olive oil over a medium low flame. Add the onions and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for one minute until fragrant. Add the spices and cook for 30 seconds. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly while you prep the rest of your ingredients.

Place the cooked onions, garlic, and spices in a blender or food processor. Add the drained and rinsed black beans, cream cheese, salt and lime juice. Pulse several times until the ingredients are well broken up, but not liquified, scraping down the sides as needed.

Continue pulsing while you add the water 1 tsp at a time until you’ve reached the right consistency. I like this dip to be somewhere between chunky and liquidy. There is definitely some texture, but no “chunks’ of beans.

Put the mixture back into your oven-safe skillet or into a small casserole dish. The wider and shallower the dish, the more surface area you have for cheese, so pick accordingly. Top with the shredded cheese and bake in the oven until the cheese is melted and begins to crisp on the sides and bubble in the middle.

Yield: 4 cups of dip