Let's eat: Coffee Chicken

This version of coffee chicken is from Ben's favourite grill guy, Rob. Rob is Robert Rainford of the "Licence to Grill" show, that Ben draws inspiration from for his BBQ pretend play indoors.

Ben goes "Mmm... mmm"!


I don't have the exact proportions for the ingredients, but do know that the marinade includes coffee powder (I used decaf, because my kids are not Java drinkers, not yet), cinnamon, garlic, pepper, and brown sugar. And for 4 thighs and 4 drumstricks, I used about 1 to 2 tablespoons each of every ingredient, and you can always add or use less of whichever ingredient you want to play up or down.

Just have to marinade the meat ahead and leave in the fridge, until it's time to cook it. Of course Rob was grilling his chicken outdoors, but our indoor version turned out fine, too.


Such one-step recipes always work for me, and I enjoy mixing my own ingredients together to see how they turn out, tweaking them now and then for a bit of variation.

Inspired...
If I remember correctly, the coffee chicken came from that particular episode of Rob's show in which he'd lost a bet to a poetry club. While preparing a feast for them, he became a budding poet himself, reciting hilarious poems, and possibly haikus, too, about the food he was cooking.

Here's Ben's own take on the coffee chicken, that evening when we were cooking ours:

Coffee chicken
by Ben

Coffee chicken...
it comes out of the grill
in four minutes.
My grill is on medium heat.
Smoke pouches...
have food in them!

Thank you!

*Ben takes a bow*

Afternote: Just found Rob's recipe for BBQed Coffee Rubbed Chicken here, and there are more of his mouth-watering dishes on the site, for the next time you do a BBQ in your backyard, that should work indoors, too.