Chef critique
Smoky Grilled Chicken with Charred Corn Relish
This is a highly practical and flavorful grilling recipe that employs sound techniques, like two-zone grilling and cooking dark meat to a higher finishing temperature. A minor timing adjustment for grilling the corn will ensure all components finish simultaneously.
Score: 8/10
Suggested fixes
- Adjust step 6 to instruct placing the corn on the grill over direct heat during the final 8-10 minutes of the chicken's indirect cooking phase.
- Change 'remaining olive oil' in step 3 to 'remaining 2 teaspoons olive oil' for absolute clarity.
Issues
- medium / timing: Step 6 says to grill the corn for 8-10 minutes 'while the chicken finishes'. However, the chicken's finishing step over direct heat only takes 2-4 minutes. The corn must be started earlier to align the completion times.
- low / clarity: In step 3, the instruction calls for the 'remaining olive oil'. Because the oil is divided across three separate steps (1 tbsp, 1 tsp, and the remainder), calculating the remainder (2 tsp) in the middle of cooking can be mildly annoying. Explicit measurements are better.
Strengths
- Excellent use of two-zone grilling to properly render the chicken thigh fat without burning the sugar in the spice rub.
- Smart temperature guidance: instructing the cook to bring bone-in thighs to 175°F results in a much better texture than stopping at 165°F.
- Well-balanced flavor profile featuring a rich, smoky protein cut by an acidic and sweet fresh relish.
- Total cook time estimate accurately reflects the sum of prep, active cooking, and resting times.