Last night I had a dream about Papaw Anderson. In my dream, I found out that he was still alive and all this time had been in the hospital. The same hospital where we work. Strange, yes. But what is perhaps even stranger is that the first email I saw this morning was from Daddy – the recipe for Papaw’s BBQ sauce. Apparently Kourtney asked him for it recently and he just sent it to both of us.
So I decided that today was the perfect time for me to try my hand at the recipe. Usually Daddy lets the chicken marinate in the sauce and then uses it to baste the chicken while it cooks on the grill. (And Daddy says it is best to use with charcoal vs gas.) I decided to try something different and cook the chicken with the sauce in the crockpot.
Ingredients:
- 2 C Vinegar
- 3 T Worchester sauce
- ½ bottle Tabasco Sauce (2T = 1 fl. Oz)
- 6 T Salt
- 1 Stick margarine
- ¼ t Garlic Salt
- ½ C Oil
Directions: Mix and heat for 15 minutes. (easy enough!)
I substituted a stick of butter for the margarine, because that is all I had. I also didn’t have garlic salt, so I used some garlic powder. When I got to the salt, I emailed Daddy just to check – 6 whole tablespoons of salt?? I have never put that much salt in anything!He assured me that it was correct, and the the salt was used to tenderize the meat. So I added it all in. I combined all of the ingredients in a small saucepan over low heat for ~ 15 minutes.
I had a whole chicken that was just over 5 lbs. I started it out in the crockpot, pouring the most of the sauce in with it. I did reserve some of the sauce for dipping purposes as recommended by Daddy. That’s the best part!! I cooked the chicken in the crockpot on medium heat for 3 or 4 hours (I can’t remember). Then I took it out, put it in a roasting pan, poured the sauce it with it, and roasted in the oven at 425 on both sides until the skin got nice and dark. (I’m a bit paranoid about not getting chicken all the way done, so I probably cooked it a bit too long (must get meat thermometer!). Meanwhile, I also added some zucchini and squash to a separate roasting pan below.
The result:
Wonderful! Just look at that crispy skin!
I love all types of BBQ sauce: ketchup based, mustard based, Alabama white BBQ sauce, sweet, vinegar and whiskey. This is obviously a vinegar-based sauce, and with the Tabasco, it is very strong and pungent (it almost stings my nose to smell it!). I love it, but is definitely different. Next time I will marinate the chicken for longer so that it will take on more of the flavor, but for tonight, especially when using the reserved portion for dipping, it was just perfect.
Also, from now on, I am no longer using the crockpot for preparing whole chickens. First of all, it stinks. I seriously can’t stand the smell of chicken cooking in the crockpot. Second of all, it comes out all mushy and bland. Roasting in the oven is just so. much. better. You just cannot get that crispy skin without roasting and/or grilling. And right as I type this, the chicken bones, spices, and leftover veggies from this week are simmering away in the crockpot and will soon turn in to my first homemade chicken stock. I am attempting to master the basics.
More fun pictures from an Anderson family cookout long ago (~10 years! We weren’t even married!):
And more photos of Papaw:
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