A strangely warm and sunny weekend for New England in January. Patriots vs. Jets playoff game on the tube. How could I not throw some meat on the grill?

I bought a bunch of bone-in chx breasts in the morning. During halftime I rubbed them down with a mixture of:

• black pepper
• paprika
• sugar
• chili powder
• salt
• ground mustard
• allspice
• cinnamon
• a pinch of ground cloves

After the game (Pats won!) I got my fire going on in one side of the main chamber, put the chx on the other side and tossed some well-soaked hickory chunks on the coals. 1.5 hours later: bbq chicken. I kept the temp at around 275-300 which is hotter than I would normally go, but I didn’t have all day at that point. There was still plenty of good smoke flavor and the meat was super-moist.
We had this with an excellent arugula salad recipe from C’s.Il; make a vinagrette from:

• 1 T apricot preserves
• 3 T white wine vinegar
• 3 T evoo
• 1 T minced shallot
• s and p

Toss with half a bulb of thin-sliced fennel (including chopped fronds), a couple handfuls of sliced red grapes and a bunch of arugula.