Holy Cow! chicken and losing my fear of Polenta

I have always been kind of afraid of Polenta.  I guess cause I was never really sure what it was -  it was just something the Osso Buco at my old favorite Berkeley restaurant, Venezia sat on, and of course I gobbled it up, all soaked in the rich OB braise.

But I never had the thought to try it myself until now.  I saw a bag in the flour section of the market that said "Polenta" the other day and thought, hey, I can make this myself, it's not just some magical thing whipped up in the back room in Italian restaurants?  So I bought the bag. I can risk $2.39 on anything.

Turns out all my fears were for naught.  It was probably the super easiest thing in the world to make.

Merely a little of my recent batch of stock (pioneer mode, baby), some milk, some garlic and fresh rosemary and like magic, in fifteen minutes of simmering and stirring I had a creamy rich mush.

I could have said done and ate that, but I chose to mix in some Asiago cheese and cracked black pepper and then bake it for 20 minutes in a hot oven until it was bubbling and golden brown with a texture and smell like beach front property in Heaven.

But what to pair it with?  No Osso Buco around the house, but I did have some chicken prepared with my new BBQ process.

This new meme calls for a bit of work and foresight:  a brining/soaking overnight, some custom rub and a slow bake followed by  a basting with my bbq sauce and a few quick turns on a super hot grill.

Phase 1.
I dropped 10 chicken legs into a quart of buttermilk with a few shakes of smoked Paprika, covered it in shrink wrap and stuck it in the fridge over night. I slept well, feeling like money in the bank!

The next day (this morning) I fished out the chicken, patted it dry,dredged it quickly in corn meal (or slowly in Panko if you're going to fry rather than BBQ) and then applied some slightly customized  Oakland Dust rub  -  paprika, salt, cayenne, sage, fennel, garlic powder, lime rind, brown sugar and dill and then let that sit and think about itself for about 5 hours.

Pase 2,
Wrap up the chicken a double wrap of tin foil and stick it in a 300 degree oven for about 1.5 hours or until it's so tender that it's almost losing its structural integrity.

Here's where it gets fun.   Take the remaining rub and add bacon grease  (yep you get to eat bacon too!!), honey, olive oil, lime, mint and some sweet Paprika  (you may have guessed I like Paprika) and whisk it into a gorgeous orange BBQ sauce and of course slather it all over the warm chicken.

Fire up that grill to 600+ degrees and do your thing, taking care to flip it often (tongs only so you don't break the skin and let any juice out) to sear the BeJesus out of it, but avoid burning.  keep basting and flipping it until you run out of sauce and can't hold back, then take it inside and place over the still warm polenta.

Heaven indeed.

The really great thing about this method is that the slow bake keeps the juices sealed in while the grease from the skin drains away in your baking pan so when you finally toss it on the grill, you don't get the usual chicken flame outs.  Way less greasy when it ends up on your plate, too.

This was absolutely the best, most moist and juicy while not greasy BBQ'd chicken I have ever had. Period. I'm giving myself a raise!  I dub this dish <Holy Cow! chicken>