Dry-Rub BBQ Chicken by Ben Mims for Tasty Pride

My boyfriend, who is also from the South, and I bonded over barbecue when we first met. For us, it’s become a special meal we indulge in on occasion...

Lauren Volo © 2020.

YIELD SERVES 4

I grew up in Mississippi, so barbecue was a big part of my life. There was pulled pork and beef brisket, sure, but my favorite was the barbecued chicken—complete with sweet baked beans, sharp, mustardy coleslaw, and a slice of white bread—that my local baseball team would sell each spring to raise money for the team. My boyfriend, who is also from the South, and I bonded over barbecue when we first met. For us, it’s become a special meal we indulge in on occasion when we eat out, particularly on Valentine’s Day, when everyone else is jockeying for a table at a white-tablecloth restaurant. Whenever we bring the tradition inside, though, I always make the closest thing I can to those baseball fundraiser chickens: a spatchcocked chicken rubbed with tons of spices like they do in Memphis. The dry rub, mixed with butter for extra richness and to help tame all the spices, has time to work its way into the skin and meat thanks to a one-hour rest in the fridge, and then again as an extra hit of crunchy flavor sprinkled on after cooking.