Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation splatchcock chicken tonight outstanding and simple!

Well as I learn to be a better outdoor cook I try different things. Most of the time with the help off this board it works out not always perfect but very good. Reason for slightly off mark is usually pilot error.

Well tonight I made spatchcock chicken. You know the kind where you cut out the back bone, then turn on it's back and push down hard on the breast until you hear the breast bone crack. The chicken should lay perfectly flat. 2 hours before you put the bird on the grill prep the bird and get a bottle of Italian salad dressing add 1/2 tsp.< of cummin and garlic powder or garlic on the skin to taste. Use about 3-4 oz's all put on the bird underneath the skin and on top of the skin. Your fingers work just fine to loosen the skin from the meat leaving the edges attached, makes kind of a pocket. Leave sit in a refrigerator for 2 hours.

Get the BBQ coals going and make enought coals so you can split in half and have a pile of coals on each side leaving the center open. Purpose is to keep the bird from being over coals so you cook indirect. Keep temperature around 350 degrees. Place the breast side down for 25 minutes then flip the bird and do the otherside for 25 minutes. The bird is done when the internal meat temperature is 165 degrees. so about an hour on the grill with the lid closed. Takes a little watching to see what you need to set your air openings after the coals are prepared. For my Weber Kettle both top and botom where a little over 1/3 rd open after the coals were ready to cook on.

The oil in the salad dressing makes the skin crisp and the bird was very juicey, the best. This is pretty easy to do and it excellant chicken. Buckfever1

Spatchcock rocks!!



Mike

In my Italian recipes, I make a "chicken under a brick" once in a while. Do what you're doing, and add a couple bricks wrapped in tin foil to the top of the bird. You get a very flat chicken! It cooks faster and gets nice and crispy... I've done it with Cornish Game Hens quite a bit too. One to a brick. The French put compound butter under the skin, by the way. Butter and tarragon or rosemary... again.

When I really want to impress people, I de-bone the chicken and give it the same treatment. You can get out the big cleaver and chop it up at the table. That's kind of cool.

Looks good. Never have tried the bricks. We use the Italian Dressing and Lawry's Perfect Blend Poultry Rub for this and beer can chicken. Kitchen shears work good for me in cutting up.

I concur. Open air dry overnight in the fridge for a crispy skin.

The chicken even comes out good when you cook them on a gas grill. My wife loves it when I cook them this way.

How hard is it to debone the chicken and keep it whole? Do you do the wings and lets or just breast and thighs?

I just cut along both sides of the backbone to remove it, the push on both sides to make it kinda flat. A kichen shear works great to remove the backbone.

For any who haven't tried this, it is the most requested meal from the wife and kids. Always turns out juicy and flavorful. From my grill, 55 minutes at 375-400 is just about perfect. I cook mine direct but high off the coals and never turn it, placing it bone side down. Don't care about a crispy skin as we pitch it anyway.

On de-boning a chicken. It's not hard. I start from the back, and cut out the back bone. With a little paring knife, I just follow the bones down. The legs are a little work. You can pull the meat down the legs and the first part of the wings. I cut off the 2 bone end of the wings and just grill them separate. The nice thing about de-boning is you can stuff it and roll it up or you can grill it and chop it in pieces. That's nice.

Very good

I wrap a brick in tin foil and place on top of the splatchcocked chicken

Thanks for sharing

Good day to spatch a little fryer while curing some old cast iron at the same time.

gdamn that looks good byc

I've got to say, when I see pictures of these big chickens, I remember what a chef friend told me. Two or three years ago, he said never buy a chicken over 3 pounds. He said big chickens are older and tougher birds. He said not to buy "plumped" birds either. No brine injected for added juiciness birds. I have tried very hard. You almost never get chickens under 4 pounds unless you buy Cornish game hens (which are just young chickens). I have noticed though that the younger birds are more tender and juicy and less greasy. I go well out of my way and sort through the birds at the market to get the smaller ones. If I have to, I buy the Bell and Evans from the butcher case for $3 or $4 more. I'd love to live in a place where I could raise birds. I'd feed them good feed and eat them young. I'm indifferent on weather or not chicken tastes good, but young smaller birds I find do taste better.

Thanks ribka. They are special when cooked in the spatch way.

Rob, I agree with your post and stay away from the oven stuffer roasters. The zoom lens makes that chicken look bigger than it really is. It's about a 4 lb fryer, which turned out great. I use mojo and a light rub.

The Costco 2 pack roasters grill up nicely. They are the same ones they sell cooked.

Damn David, If I didn't have a couple of rib-eyes as thick as my leg (post to follow), I'd be making spatchcock for supper. That looks great!!

Mike

The little chickens Shaws market sells roasted are the only chickens I can find around 3 pounds. I couldn't find any small ones today so I made blueberry waffles for dinner.