Published May 1, 1998.
We wanted a grilled chicken recipe with lime flavor that went straight to the bone. Our method of choice, derived from one that the father of one of our editors had developed over the course of 40 years of making grilled lime chicken, involved grilling the chicken till it was nearly done, pulling it off the grill to dip it in lime sauce, returning it to the grill over low heat for about five more minutes, and then dipping it in the sauce once more before serving.
The 1 1/2-hour brining time is highly recommended, but not essential; skip it if you’re in a hurry. It’s fine to use chicken parts, such as eight leg/thighs, separated or not, or eight breast/ wings, separated at the joint connecting wing to breast. Grilling whole chickens is also an option, if you remove the backbones and butterfly each before brining. If flare-ups threaten to char the skin of the chicken, move the pieces temporarily to the cooler side of the grill. An equal amount of toasted and crushed cumin seeds may be substituted for the coriander seeds.
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