Funny, I just made oven roasted drumsticks & potatoes w/ a barbeque spice blend that's become a recent fave. It's a mix of chili powder, smoked paprika, coriander, sugar & salt & creates a wonderful smoky-sweet flavor. Original recipe from BH&G...

http://www.bhg.com/recipe/printview/smoky-chicken-with-fingerling-potatoes/

"---My first piece of advice would be to start with a good quality chicken. :) Then what...---"

A good quality chicken requires only salt and pepper, and it will taste great, provided ------ if you cook it to the exact temperature.

I know many will disagree. Food texture is more important that seasoning, IMHO. Texture is determined by temperature .

So I think a good thermometer is the best friend for a beginner cook (and for an experienced cook).

I cook my chickens to exactly 145F. Pork 150F, beef 129F. Amazing juiciness and tenderness.

dcarch

Cooking can be simple. The first time I was told to cook Sunday lunch - roast chicken - I was about 9 at the time and asked my Mother how long to cook it for. She just said - look at it. You've seen enough cooked chickens. She wasn't wrong. I've NEVER given anyone food poisening, either LOL

She also said that if you can read, you can cook. She wasn't wrong there, either. Get her a good book and she'll never look back!

DC and IC, thanks for the comments. They're appropriate, of course, but the College Girl isn't trying to learn to cook. I was hoping to give her a good recipe or ten for barbecue chicken so next time she'd have a hope of knowing what to do next time.

Carol, thanks for the link! It sounds different from anything I've made, which is great!

Here's my go to. Heck, it has Easy in the name! must be good for "young" cooks. Tastes good and is well rated. As an alternate ;)

Easy after work chicken

You're welcome! My tweaks to it are using half the sugar, adding some ground coriander & ground ancho chile powder & slashing the drumsticks w/ several diagonal cuts before roasting. I didn't make it w/ brussels sprouts either, just apples, onions & potato wedges instead of fingerlings.

Non cooking college student. Hmmm. Probably does not want a cupboard full of ingredients. Wonder if Sandra Lee's semi-homemade recipes would help?

http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/semi-homemade-cooking-with-sandra-lee/recipes.html

This is my easiest oven BBQ recipe which may work on chicken.

*** Spareribs - Bar B Que
(the oil in this allows omission of basting)
1/4 c. oil
1/4 c. catsup
12 dashes (2 tsp.) Worcestershire
5 dashes (1 tsp.) wine vinegar
1 T. brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, smashed
3-4 farmer style ribs
Place ribs in close-fitting pan.
Whisk all ingredients & pour over ribs.
Bake at 350 degrees for 2 hours

Other than roasting whole chickens in the oven, the only chicken parts I've found that cook better in the oven than the grill are wings.

LOL! Fawnridge, if you'd like to move out here and grill chicken for the college kids, by all means do, but you'll have to bring your own grill.

Thanks, Rob333, and Irisgal! And thanks to Carol for the tweaks. Okay, I admit it, Irisgal: I tried. I really did. Clicked the link and everything. But I just can't deal with Sandra Lee. :( Your rib recipe does look like it would work for chicken pieces, though. :)

"She also said that if you can read, you can cook. She wasn't wrong
there, either. Get her a good book and she'll never look back!"

I once told someone that...she was NOT a happy camper about my comment.

Fill a Pyrex glass pan with skin on chicken parts: thighs, legs and breasts. Remove extra thick fat but leave skin on. Pour 1/3 bottle bbq over, cover tightly with aluminum foil, cook for 2 hours at 350, Remove foil, Pour off most, not all of the juice/fat. Pour rest of bbq sauce over all, run under broiler to crisp up skin. Serve.
I made this once a week or so for 20 years when working, mac and cheese from a blue box is comforting with it.
It's all old school eighties and probably not good enough for many these days though but was tasty at the time.

LOL!! My mother used to say, "If you can eat, you can cook," by which she meant that if you learn and understand flavors, you can figure out what's good together. In my experience, a non-cook doesn't want to read a whole book before she can cook a chicken, but can generally follow a simple recipe that gives specific directions rather than relying on some knowledge of cooking. Or eating. :)

Didn't you ask what the problem was with her attempt(s)? If the problem is something like seasoning, then all the recipes in the world won't help. Some people like minimal seasoning. Some consider "barbecue" chicken to be a chicken with BBQ sauce poured on it. Some insist it has to be smoked. Some do a BBQ seasoning. Or any number of other ways. Maybe she burned it on the grill? Maybe she undercooked it? Too much seasoning or too little? Too much of one thing and not another? Or maybe she expected it to taste like her favorite restaurant or family/friend would make and it didn't? I'd start by determining what the problem is first, then try to suggest ways to solve it.

Sure. She told me what she did. She just threw stuff together without a recipe and doesn't know how to cook a chicken in general. If she had a recipe she could have made the recipe and it would have been at least half decent.

If you bought her a nice, simple cook book she'd be able to make lots of lovely things and think of you lovingly for the rest of her life :)