Page 70 - Barbecue Chicken Made Easy

salt as a treatment for the interior of the meat, and spices and herbs
. The juices of the meat mix with the herbs and spices and they develop flavor during chemical
reactions catalyzed by the heat of the fire.
Adding sugar to a rub or brinerade has some benefits. The sugar sticks to the meat’s surface, gets into microscopic pores and cracks, and aids in browning, especially at lower temperatures. Be aware: Sugar burns easily, so you have to be really careful about temperature control and watch the cook very carefully. Also, if you smoke a wet brined meat that had sugar in the brine, it can get a slight hammy taste.
They're called rubs for a reason: You should rub them into the meat. Don't worry. Massaging in the rub will not pierce the surface and make the juices run out. The meat will not lose any more juice than if you were to just sprinkle it on. In fact, rubbing in a rub helps it get into the meat. The surface of poultry and other meat is full of microscopic ridges, valleys, pockmarks, and pores. Massaging in a rub helps get the flavor throughout the entire surface and won’t hurt the meat one bit.
We also like to pat in a thin layer of oil on the outside of the meat to help the rub stick, to help make the skin crispy, and to boost flavor.
How grills work
To cook flavorful chicken safely without drying it out, it helps to know how outdoor cookers work. Gas and charcoal grills have a lot in common even though they use different fuels. Both cook food by generating energy that we refer to as heat.
as an exterior treatment, like a sauce
Inside a grill there are three types of energy: Conduction, infrared
radiation, and convection airflow.