From PEOPLE Magazine Click to enlarge
If there's one thing Eddie Montgomery has learned in life, it's that "a man just has to grill." So when he took his family to Franklin, Tenn., to visit bandmate Troy Gentry on a rainy Tuesday in October, it only made sense that the men gathered around Troy's grill. Make that grills: Troy has both a stainless-steel gas grill and a new charcoal model, the Big Green Egg (a Father's Day gift from his wife, Angie). "Troy's been bragging on his grill," says Eddie, "but this is the first time I've seen it. It's pretty cool."

With Troy, Angie and their 6-year-old daughter Kaylee and the big Montgomery crew—including Eddie's wife, Tracy, sons Kevin, 24, and Hunter, 12, daughters Brooke, 21, and Candace, 18, and 2-year-old granddaughter Skylar—there were a lot of mouths to start feeding, so inside the house, Angie and Tracy got busy whipping up side dishes like stuffed jalapeño peppers, while the guys tended to a glazed barbecue chicken. "The glaze adds something special," says Troy, who likes to top it off with a cranberry salsa. "The salsa packs some heat thanks to jalapeño peppers. I love hot things." Troy, whose parents owned a Burger Broil restaurant in Lexington, Ky., when he was growing up, started helping out in the business as a young boy. "I had to stand on a milk crate to be able to put the burgers together," he recalls. And Eddie's no slouch in the kitchen either. "I make the best damned biscuits in the country," he says. "I learned to cook when I was little, from being around my dad and my grandmother."

In fact, eating well is so important to the guys they've been known to take a grill with them on tour. "If we're gonna be somewhere long enough, we go to a store, load up, then go to town on that grill," says Troy. "The tour bus is the biggest tailgate party in town!"

The Menu

GLAZED BARBECUE CHICKEN WITH CRANBERRY SALSA

Makes: 8 servings
Hands-on time: 10 min.
Total time: 30 min.

8 skinned and boned chicken breasts
1½ tsp. salt, divided
¾ tsp. freshly ground black pepper, divided
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup orange juice
¼ cup barbecue sauce
3 tablespoons honey
Cranberry salsa

1. Preheat one side of grill to between 400° and 500° (high); leave other side of grill unlit.

2. Sprinkle chicken breasts with 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. Whisk together olive oil, remaining salt and pepper and next three ingredients.

3. Brush chicken with barbecue sauce mixture. Grill chicken over direct heat, covered with grill lid, 2 min. on each side. Move chicken to unlit side and grill, covered, 6 min. on each side or until done, brushing occasionally with barbecue sauce. Remove from grill and serve immediately with Cranberry Salsa.

CRANBERRY SALSA

2 (16-oz.) cans whole-berry cranberry sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 green onions, sliced
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon chili powder
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

1. Whisk other ingredients into cranberry sauce. Cover and chill 1 hr.