Grilled Carolina Treet BBQ Chicken

You are going to love this quick and easy Mesquite Smoked Carolina Treet BBQ chicken. This recipe only adds one thing in addition to this amazing BBQ sauce… a nice touch of mesquite smoke flavor that compliments it perfectly. If you are not familiar with the great taste of Carolina Treet Barbecue sauce, this cooking sauce has been around the Carolina’s since its birth in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1953. It is a perfect blend of vinegar and spices that BBQ from North Carolina is famous for and contains no sugars, sweeteners, or tomato products.

We are going to cook this in a Weber Kettle Grill over indirect charcoal heat. The total time from meal prep to complete is 27 minutes.

When you start to thaw-out the chicken grab a handful of mesquite wood chips and let them start to soak in a small bowl of water prior to grilling.

When you are ready to begin cooking, first start by lighting your charcoal and getting the grill ready to cook. I always like to use the Weber Lighter Cubes with the Weber Rapidfire Chimney Starter. Many people moved from charcoal grills to gas grills for ease of use. However, I find that using the Rapidfire Chimney Starter and Lighter Cubes makes cooking with charcoal super easy. Combined they reduce the time it takes for the charcoal to be temperature ready for cooking down to about 15 minutes. Not to mention… the flavor over gas is well worth the few extra minutes.

Now that you have the charcoal heating up, take your chicken breast and lightly cover them front and back with olive oil. Salt and pepper both sides of the chicken. Pour a generous amount of Carolina Treet BBQ Sauce over the chicken and let sit until ready to be placed on the grill.

After about 15 minutes when the charcoal has burned down and ready to start cooking, transfer the charcoal from the chimney to the Char-Baskets. If you do not have Char-Baskets put the coals on the right and left side of the grill. This will allow an area in the middle of the grate to place the chicken away from direct heat.

Place the Smoker Box with the soaked mesquite wood chips over a portion of the hot charcoal. I like to use the wood chip smoker box even though I am well aware you can place the mesquite wood chips directly on the charcoal briskets. For me, its cleaner and burns slower providing more smoke and flavor.

Close the lid and allow the heat to build inside the grill. The grill will heat to 300 degrees. When the wood chips begin to smoke… it is time to add your chicken.

Cook the first side of the chicken for 5 minutes and then flip. Apply additional BBQ Sauce on the backside and brush it in for a good even coverage. Cook the opposite side for 5 minutes. You are now 10 minutes into cooking and based on the thickness of the chicken breast, I will turn them one last time to cook the BBQ sauce into the chicken.

When you are cooking them over indirect heat and not directly over the hot coals, the thickness of the chicken doesn’t matter so much. Some people like to flatten out the chicken breast before grilling to keep the thinner parts of the breast from burning. Thinning the chicken breast by beating it with a flat object or meat hammer just keeps the cooking consistent throughout the chicken.

Give them one last flip for the final 2-3 minutes… you are now ready to remove the chicken, let rest, and serve! I hope you enjoy this genuinely flavorful Carolina Treet bbq chicken recipe.

Grilled Carolina Treet BBQ Chicken One-Minute Video

Below is a one-minute step-by-step video showing how I grilled the Carolina Treet BBQ chicken in the steps outlined above.

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