Chicken is probably Mother Nature's most perfect food, otherwise why would she have made so many other foods taste just like it? The chicken to a barbecue cook is like the brick to an architect. It is the building block of a dinner, but the challenge comes from the new and innovative way in which it can be used. Poultry can be cooked on the grill in so many ways that it challenges the chef to come up with the new and intriguing ideas. It can be cooked whole, halved, quartered, in pieces, on a spit, in a wire basket, or skewered on kebabs. You can enhance the taste of the chicken by adding marinades, rubs, smoke, or barbecue sauce. In fact, poultry is so adaptable to grilling that it is almost impossible to screw it up.Notice that I said almost.

The easiest way to ruin a good chicken barbecue is to serve food that  is not completely cooked. There is no such thing as serving a breast of chicken medium rare. Oh, I suppose you could serve it that way if you wanted to, but be prepared for the onset of intestinal distress that will  pay a visit to your guests. The only way to serve any poultry is well done, and the best way to be sure it is well done is by using a meat thermometer. Use your meat thermometer to check doneness in whole poultry by inserting it to the high portion of the bird, making sure that it does not touch any major bones, which would give it a false reading. Poultry is done when the meat thermometer reads 185F. If you are grilling poultry parts, the easiest way to check for doneness is to cuta small slit in the thickest part of the bird.If the juices run clear, the poultry is done. If the juices are pink or bloody, your bird is not finished yet and requires more cooking.