What is your favorite way to cook chicken quarters?

I like to do mine raised direct @ 350-400 with no wood chips. Rub of your choice. I just find I like it better without the smoke. Go figure. 

They will smoke like crazy if you do them direct.  Some find the fatty smoke coming from the coals undesirable if you do them direct. We like going indirect with something in place to catch the drippings. If you go 375ish f dome temp indirect, you will get the skin to crisp up just fine.  Helps to pat the skin completely dry first.  Also drying them in the fridge beforehand helps.  Also a sprinkle of baking powder or corn starch is a nice trick. 

If you're looking for something "different" though, you can scratch everything I just said and do Jamaican Jerk raised direct.  There are several marinades out there you can do from home if you do a quick Google search. 

I like to spread a bit of Walkerswood hot jerk seasoning on chicken parts, let them soak up the flavor for at least a couple of hours and then grill with oak for smoke. 

Marinating in Goya Criolo fo a while and grilling with cherry smoke is great too. 

I almost never do chicken indirect. 

reload said:

Jamaican Jerk...you have my attention!   Sounds like a great idea.  I like the additional heat and flavor.  I hope to switch things up a little and create something other than the run of the mill smoked quarters.

As @Carolina Q just said, walkerswood is also my go-to. The paste, not the saucier version.  You may wanna go with the milder version if you haven't tried it before.  It pretty spicy stuff.  If you're like me though and enjoy a good sweat, give the spicy version a go.   You can find it at World Market if you have one near you.

if you wanna serve it street style, chop the quarters up with a meat cleaver.  Good stuff.  

If tandoori chicken floats your boat, then check out past threads from @Dave_Matthews . He ran some tandoori chicken experiemtns and diligently posted his results.

A lot of good and easy tips here:
https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1148914/tandoori-chicken/p1

There are many more authentic recipes around, but the mixes and marinades posted by Dave are usually easy to find.  

pgprescott said:

Dyal_SC said:

They will smoke like crazy if you do them direct.  Some find the fatty smoke coming from the coals undesirable if you do them direct. We like going indirect with something in place to catch the drippings. If you go 375ish f dome temp indirect, you will get the skin to crisp up just fine.  Helps to pat the skin completely dry first.  Also drying them in the fridge beforehand helps.  Also a sprinkle of baking powder or corn starch is a nice trick. 

If you're looking for something "different" though, you can scratch everything I just said and do Jamaican Jerk raised direct.  There are several marinades out there you can do from home if you do a quick Google search. 

Whatever it is, I like it. Reminds me of doing them on my old weber kettle. Or over a pit like the old days. I did them indirect for years, then I tried it direct. It was inspired by all the guys here who do their wings direct. Same thing. 

Completely agree with you.  I don't mind it too much, but those with sensitive taste buds might not like it as much.   I've heard of pregnant women and some children, especially, who don't care for the fatty smoke.  I did some leg quarters the other day that were raised direct, and I sensed my sister in law, who just gave birth, didn't care for the chicken all that much.  Figured it was prolly the smoke from the coals.  I've heard from other members of the forum that their prego wives experienced the same thing.