Kabul Piquant Chicken

True authentic spice that brings back memories of travels around the world. And, glad to support a woman-owned company that ethically sources spices!

Piquant Chicken became Piquant Turkey Tenderloin Delicious

This was my 3rd Piquant Chicken spice reload. This is literally the ONLY grilled chicken I have ever made that I liked (forget about my all-too-polite guests' opinions.) Grilled Kabul PC Chicken To Die For Grilled chicken has always been a problem for me. I won't bore you with my many failures. Suffice it to say, it usually: - lacked flavor - was too dry or overdone - was burnt - All of the above. The solution came about after I purchased a King **** Sunterra santa maria style grill, which gave me the ability to quickly adjust heat up or down, and to have a grilling surface which does NOT cause fires or flareups. I use wood or charcoal. That last benefit then, took care of of the problem of burned chicken. 30 years ago I started marinating my favorite steaks, ribeyes, in cheap italian dressing. Steaks go into a gallon ziplock, add a bottle of salad dressing and leave 'em in the fridge 8-24 hours. The extra flavor absorbed by the meat, and sealed in with a good crusty hot grill, creates steaks that are the best I have ever had. ANYwhere, including virtually all the great steakhouses in America. Hold that thought. At the beginning of the pandemic, one day at Costco, the only chicken I could find were large bags of boneless chicken thighs. Coming out of their bags, I found what looked like the results of training sessions for kindergarten level chicken butchers. But, rather than go back to the store and complain, I decided to try 'em anyway. And dunked 'em all in the italian dressing marinade overnite. Not as long as my steaks (thinner meat, not as dense as beef). Noonish next day, I fired up the Santa Maria. Now my model has V shaped grilling grates. Slightly slanted, cooking liquids run down the V into a little holding trough. This feature prevents fires. Also, on top of the grill grates for chick, veggies, and fish, I place a big square of 1/4" heavy stainless steel wire mesh (order from Skylighter.com). That helps prevent delicate foods from sticking to the ultra hot V grates. I spray everything with low-no smoke grapeseed oil. Next I remove my unsightly boneless chick thighs, and drain 'em for a bit. Then arrange 'em on the cooking wire. On my grill I can easily do 5-10 lbs of these things at one time. I freeze lots of them after grilling. Now, gitchoo yer new bottle of Piquant Chicken spices. Pour a bunch of it into your feelthy, dirty, charcoaly hand. Only use your bare hand. People will run from you if you cook using purple nitrile gloves these days. Sprinkle the stuff liberally, but not thick, on toppa alla the chick piece--except 2! Then flip each spiced piece and apply PC spice to the other side. It is okay for this spice to carbonize some. No problem at all. But you still wanna keep your chick from turning black. So CONSTANT ATTENTION MUST BE PAID! Keep track of the two unspiced pieces. They are your "controls". Cook them like the rest, but keep 'em separate. You absolutely cannot grill chicken and walk away from it. You must watch it closely, constantly, and keep flipping the pieces to make sure they don't burn. The next secret of my success was the use of a Thermoworks probe thermometer. The high priced one. THAT has had a greater impact on my grilling successes over the last 10 years of all my trials and tribulations. Cook each piece 165 degrees F. Do not worry about their color, crust or any of that normal steak methodology. Stick the thermo into every single piece. The little, thin ones will finish first. When they hit 162 or thereabouts, get 'em offa the grill, and just put 'em in a bowl, one on toppa the other. Their residual heat will keep 'em cooking to 165. At 165, I promise you, they will still be juicy, no matter what they look like on the outside. Now this is important. As soon as you can possibly hold one of those first pieces of cooked chicken, eat that sucker! And, if you have managed to do it, eat one of the two unspiced pieces and compare the flavors. I think you will agree that the PC spiced chicken, prepared as described above may be the best ****** grilled chicken you ever set tooth to. And it will have flavor, still be juicy, and relatively quick and easy to make. PS: chicken thigh meat may be the best flavored part of the chicken to my tastebudlets. But if it's not your's, you can do the same thing with any chicken cut. Whole boneless ******* are problematic, due to their extreme variation in thickness from one end to t'other. Lotsa fancy, dancy ways of over coming this problem are around, but 'twere it me, I would just cut the ******* into one small and one large piece, and cook 'em separately--it is almost impossible to evenly grill chicken ******* unless you do SOMEthing to accomodate the thickness variations. PPS: grilled PC spiced chicken salad is also some of the best. Pull your chicken into small shreds and pieces, mix with good mayo, diced celery, a little coarse chopped capers, and

Perfect blend. Love it.

The spice mixes are yummy. Started off with the Kabul blend for my chicken and shrimp, then started buying their saffron on a regular basis. The gummy candies with the saffron threads are absolutely ADDICTIVE! Thank God I can’t afford to indulge on a regular basis or I’d be the size of a house. Once you’ve tasted the good stuff, you’ll never go back to supermarket bland brands.