Fred's Famous BAM Chicken

BAM Chicken Thigh

This is one of my signature dishes, and a family favorite. It's delicious, with crispy skin, moist tender meat and it's very easy to make. We never tire of this treat.

First start with the BAM mix:
1 Part Paprika
1 Part Garlic Powder
1 Part Salt
1 Part Brown Sugar
For example 1/4 cup of each ingredient will give you 1 Cup of BAM mix.
Mix thoroughly, and store in a container - preferably one with a shaker top.

Next is the chicken - If you know how to debone a chicken - that's the first choice  (I'm putting the finishing touches on my video on how to debone a chicken and hope to post it soon). Second choice are thighs. You can use any parts you prefer or bake the chicken whole - I prefer those stand-up chicken rack for roasting the whole chicken.

Whole deboned BAM Chicken

Coat the chicken thoroughly with BAM mix. Line a cookie sheet that has sides, with aluminum foil. Place the coated chicken pieces, evenly spaced on the foil. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and bake for 45 minutes.
The grease captured in the foil is perfect for making gravy.

For roasting the whole chicken - if you're using one of the stand up roasting racks (they allow all of the skin to get crispy) I remove one of the oven racks or put them all on the lowest part of the oven, making room for the stand-up chicken rack. I take a cast iron skillet and place the rack inside the skillet along with about 1/2 a cup of water - so that the grease doesn't burn if it overflows. Bake at 350, if we baked at 400, there's the possibility of burning the outside of the chicken before the inside is finished cooking. We lower the cooking temperature and increase the amount of time. The amount of time will be dependent on the size of the chicken, I would allow 1 1/2 to 2 hrs.  You should use a meat thermometer to check the temperature - stick the probe as deep as you can on the inside of the thigh, between the body and the thigh. The meat should reach a temperature of 165 degrees (check it in several places in that area - the LAST thing you want is under cooked chicken!)

For Taste Sake
For a different flavor variation - try making the spice mix with Smoked Paprika
I prefer using Kosher salt with big flakes instead of the standard, fine grained table salt.