This is one of the most popular menu items at Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q and has been a staple in Decatur, Alabama, since Big Bob first started selling his ’Q in 1925. Most folks raised in North Alabama have firmly believed since childhood that barbecue sauce is white. Where did the rest of the country go wrong? The simple technique for cooking the chickens has not changed for more than eighty years, and the ingredients can be listed on one hand: salt, pepper, basting oil, and, of course, that creamy, tangy, peppery white sauce. An all-hickory fire on a closed brick pit is the only other necessity for duplicating the authentic Big Bob flavors. The type of oil used for basting has changed through the years. Big Bob used whatever oil was most easily available to baste the chickens as they cooked, including rendered lard. Excess fat was cut off the pork shoulders and heated in a pot until the lard liquefied. The rendered lard was stored in metal “lard buckets” until needed. No matter what type of oil is used, the chickens still taste fantastic.

　　

Ingredients

serves 4 to 8

　　2 whole butterflied chickens

　　1 tablespoon salt

　　1/2 cup oil (vegetable, olive, lard)

　　2 teaspoons black pepper

　　Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q White Sauce (page 218)

　　

Step 1

Build a fire (wood or a combination of charcoal and wood) for indirect cooking by situating the coals on only one side of the cooker, leaving the other side void. Preheat the cooker to 325°F.

　　

Step 2

Dust each whole chicken evenly with salt. Place the chickens over the void side of the cooker, with the skin side up. When the skin on the chicken is golden brown, after about 1 1/2 hours, turn the chickens skin side down, basting both sides with the oil. Sprinkle the cavities of each chicken evenly with pepper. Cook the chicken for an additional 1 1/2 hours or until the internal temperature of the thickest part of the thigh reaches 180°F. Add more wood to the fire as needed to replenish the supply of coals and maintain a temperature of 325°F.

　　

Step 3

Pour the white sauce into a narrow, deep container and position it next to your cooker. Remove each chicken from the cooking grate and submerge it into the pot of white sauce. Remove the chicken from the sauce, cut each chicken in half between the breasts, and then quarter by cutting between each breast and thigh.

　　

pitmaster’s tip

Step 4

When cooking whole chickens over indirect heat, point the legs toward the fire. This will ensure that the leaner breast meat will not be overdone before the dark meat is fully cooked.

　　

Cooking Method

Step 5

Indirect heat

　　

Suggested Wood

Step 6

Hickory

　　Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book by Chris Lilly. Copyright © 2009 by Chris Lilly. Published by Crown Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved.Vice president, executive chef, and partner of Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q, Chris Lilly oversees the two company-owned restaurants as well as their new chain of franchises.