Best-ever grilled chicken

I know this is a cocky title for a chicken dish, but I promise it will meet expectations. This is a recipe used in my family for more than 40 years on chicken and beef, and frankly nothing surpasses it. This isn't a slow cooker recipe, but you gotta have patience (at least three day's worth) to do this one right. It uses what our family calls the Don Farris marinade, for my brother's godfather. He developed the marinade after years of dining out with my parents and having a similar dish in a Norfolk restaurant. By trial and error, he developed the Don Farris blend.

His recipe is as follows:

Don Farris marinade

1/3 cup corn oil
1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons brown sugar

Blend all ingredients and use it to marinate 10-12 chicken thighs or a london broil beef roast (his favorite) for about three days. Grill the meat over direct heat. For whole thighs, cook 45 minutes to an hour. For london broil, cook about 7 minutes per side, for medium rare. Slice thinly on the bias.

BUT.... Before you start mixing up the marinade to grill for the weekend, consider some modifications.

A third of a cup of oil is a lot of oil. This recipe originated in the 1960s, before people seemed to worry about eating so much oil. And my husband cannot eat garlic or onions. (I know, he is missing out on great pleasure in life.) And, here is the biggie: It took me more than 20 years of cooking on my own to break from cooking whole chicken thighs, like my parents. Buy the boneless, skinless thighs available in most grocery stores (or bone them yourself). Thighs are a juicy part that hold up well to grilling, but boneless thighs cook faster, reducing the chance for burning or drying out on the grill.

Here's my modified recipe:

Best-ever grilled chicken

10-12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons oil
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons brown sugar

Blend the marinade ingredients to completely dissolve the sugar. Add the chicken pieces and cover. It's best to use a recloseable plastic container, or a large resealable plastic bag. Regrigerate for three days, turning the chicken each day. After three days it will look like this. (The smell is fantastic, even if the raw chicken isn't!)

Prepare a charcoal or propane grill for direct grilling.

Place the chicken thighs on the grill.

Don't crowd the grill. Leave a few inches of space between the pieces of meat. (Yes, I was grilling barefoot on Tuesday!)

Close the lid and let the heat do the work. After about 10 minutes, check the chicken and give it a baste.

Again, close the lid and let the heat do the work.

Here's what it should look like after about 15 minutes, or midway through cooking:

Pretty, huh? Just close the lid again and let it keep cooking. This will cut down on flareups (as will using skinless thighs and less oil in the marinade).

Getting close to being done here. Just baste again...

And make sure the pieces are cooked through. Total cooking time for boneless thighs should be about 30 minutes. If some pieces are cooking too quickly, move them to cooler parts of the grill. If some are too slow, move them to the hotter spots. After 30 minutes, remove to a platter and voila:

Best-ever grilled chicken. This is so delicious, you won't be able to stop eating. I made this a couple of weeks ago and my children were tearing off bits of the chicken and eating it while standing around the grill. Last night, my husband and I made it again. Yes, this plate is a memory already; we enjoyed it for dinner, lunch and dinner again. Seriously, try this one; it is a home run and it will become a favorite in your family.