Bone-in chicken thighs and legs, rub marinated, then grilled over indirect heat or smoke cooked, brushed with Alabama white sauce and served with additional sauce on the side.
I have to admit, I don't cook outside as much these days. The heat is just too hard on me as I've gotten older, and it gets hot as a match in the summertime here! I mean, I was filling bird feeders yesterday and just in that short time I thought I was gonna die!
Though I haven't let go of my stack smoker, Weber, Lodge Sportsman, or my gas grill, of all of the cookout tools I have, I still love my Traeger pellet cooker {affil link} the most.
Now I know real Qers don't consider that to be hard core smoke cooking, but I love it anyway, because it puts on some nice smoke flavor and because it's an indirect and electric cooking method, you can put your food on and leave it to return to the comfort of your air conditioner, without worrying over flare ups or needing to check on the temperature every few minutes.
When it comes to barbecue, if you live in the Deep South, and especially if you're from the northern Alabama area, then you're likely familiar with Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q, in Decatur Alabama, and know all about Alabama White Sauce.
A fella named Don McLemore started Big Bob's in 1925, and many years later, great granddaughter Amy and her husband Chris Lilly joined the team. They became famous for inventing an all-purpose white sauce, used mostly for barbecue, but also for pasta salads, potato salads and cabbage slaws these days. The original recipe is widely available, but I played around with it to come up with my own variation and paired it up with my chicken rub for some bone-in thighs and legs. I've written the directions for my Traeger, but this chicken can certainly be grilled or baked as well.
As always, full recipe text with measurements and instructions, as well as a printable document, are a little bit further down the page. Just swipe or scroll past the step by step pictures below. Here's how to make my Smoked Chicken with Alabama White Sauce.
Cover chicken with rub, cover and let rest 30 minutes, or refrigerate if longer. When ready to cook, whisk together sauce ingredients and set aside. For pellet grill, fill hopper with hickory pellets and preheat to Smoke 5 minutes with lid open or heat grill to high with all burners, then turn off half for indirect cooking.
Set temperature to 325 degrees F. When temp is reached, add chicken and smoke, or grill on indirect side, for 30 minutes. Transfer some of the sauce into a separate bowl and brush on chicken; reserve remaining sauce. Turn, brush again and continue cooking another 30 minutes. Brush with sauce, turn and cook for about another 15 minutes, or if grilling, transfer to direct heat side. Cook to internal temperature of 165/170 degrees F. Turn off smoker and let chicken rest on grates with lid shut for 10 minutes then transfer to platter. If grilling, remove immediately. Serve with a bowl of remaining sauce for the table.
Now I don't care who you are - that's some good looking chicken. Dig in!
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