Monday, September 24, 2018

Fire Roasted Chicken Breast with Chipotle White Sauce

In November 2016, I was at a hog pickin' in Smithfield, Virginia.  Robyn Lindars, Clint Cantwell and I got to spend a good bit of time with Tuffy Stone.  


He excitedly talked with us about the book project on which he was working, both the ups and downs.  He spoke of creating delicious recipes that were memorable yet also approachable for the home cook.  

Tuffy Stone is renowned in the BBQ world for his achievements 
  • Two-time champion at the American Royal
  • Three-time champion at the Jack Daniels Invitational (only team to ever do that)
  • Judge on BBQ Pitmasters
But a lot of people don't realize that he's also a former U.S. Marine and a classically trained chef.  

At the time, it seemed like it would be FOREVER before the book came out but Cool Smoked - The Art of Great Barbecue finally came out late this Spring.  And a classic BBQ book, it is.


Book Review Tuffy Stone Cool Smoke the Art of Great Barbecue

Last week, I decided to make Tuffy's Chipotle White Sauce and use it on some fire-roasted, bone-in chicken breasts.

Fire roasted chicken with chipotle white sauce


Bone-in chicken breasts are inexpensive and have much more flavor than their boneless, skinless counterpart.  When you cook them properly, they yield a good bit of juicy white meat that is exceptional as is or shredded for use in casseroles, salads, soups, and sandwiches.

We bought some bone-in split chicken breasts at our Food City.  We rinsed them off, straightened out their skin, and patted them dry.  I applied a light coat of peanut oil and seasoned them with our Hot Ba'Cock recipe.


I preheated one of our kamado grills to 350f and set it up for indirect heat.  There are a lot of ways to do that (spiders, stones, adjustable rigs, etc) but this time I used a platesetter with the legs up (now called Conveggtor®), foil covered drip pan, and a set of Craycort cast iron grates.  


While that cooked, I whisked together this no-cook sauce.  I'm a huge fan of Alabama white sauce and arguably the best bite of chicken I ever had was Chris Lilly's that he made at a BBQ class I took. It sounds weird but this mayonnaise based BBQ sauce is delicious.  

There are a lot of white sauces available out there, both jars for sale and recipes online.  Tuffy's Chipotle White Sauce is a bit of a departure from many white sauces because it includes chipotle puree for a richer color and a substantial kiss of heat.  

Typically, the sauce is applied at the end, often with the chicken dumped right into the sauce and served.  For me, I like to brush on the stuff when the chicken hits about 145f internal, about 35-40 minutes into the cook.


Applying the sauce earlier cooks it onto the chicken and it changes the flavor.  I don't think that anyone would guess that this chicken was basted with white sauce, based on the golden color or tangy taste.


Finished and ready to eat, this chicken smells phenomenal.  The flavor was big and bold.

Delicious chipotle white sauce chicken on a kamado grill

I cooked these to an internal temperature of 160f°, just shy of an hour, and let them rest for 5 minutes.  They were juicy as could be!

How to cook juicy chicken breasts on a big green egg.

I can't recommend Cool Smoke - The Art of Great Barbecue enough. We've taken Tuffy's competition class and I can tell you that the competition recipes he gives in the book are close to what he teaches in his class, although not exact.  The book is also loaded with non-competition style recipes that will make you the Grand Champion of your backyard.  Everything that we have made from this book has been quite delicious.  Cool Smoke is a book that needs to be in the collection of any serious griller or BBQ aficionado.