Spatchcock Chicken & Baked Potato

Wife has gone to visit my daughter in Dallas so I am on my own for supper. I have been wanting some chicken from my Big Steel Keg so I split one then seasoned it and threw it on the keg at 300 degree.

After a hour I washed a couple of potatoes oiled them down and covered with kosher salt and added to the keg. I also basted the bird while the lid was up.

After a couple more basting the thigh temp was 170 degree so I rested the bird for a few minutes while I fixed my potato and a salad.
The chicken was very moist and tasted great.

Looks good. How long did it take at 300?

I typically do spatchcock between 375 and 400 for about an hour and 15 minutes on the Egg. I like the skin to be crispy.

May try your technique soon.

Was on for 2 hours. Skin was crispy with good bite through.

That looks like a fine meal my friend! I hope you cleaned your plate.

How hard is it to split a bird like that & get them flattened out? Any tricks?

Thanks, I did a pretty good job at cleaning it.

Looks awesome..

Originally Posted by RickyBobby

How hard is it to split a bird like that & get them flattened out? Any tricks?

scissors

Scissors will work, but I like a Japanese boning knife. I think it's a little cleaner and you can get closer to the spine.

Originally Posted by RickyBobby

That looks like a fine meal my friend! I hope you cleaned your plate.

How hard is it to split a bird like that & get them flattened out? Any tricks?

eh76 is correct. I used scissors then used my knife to crack the sternum so it will open better.

I actually like a serrated/ bread knife, maybe my kitchen scissors are not big enough.

I don't eat the bones

Originally Posted by 2Bimmers

Looks good. How long did it take at 300?

I typically do spatchcock between 375 and 400 for about an hour and 15 minutes on the Egg. I like the skin to be crispy.

May try your technique soon.

If you like crispy, prepare it the night before and throw it in the fridge uncovered.

I would love to see someone post up a few pics of the splitting of the bird process. I want to try doing a spatchcock soon. Poultry on the EGG has been absolute dynamite! I've only had the BGE for right @ a week and have already done chicken 3 times.

Do a search on youtube. Lots of video's there.

Here is one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppa1bxB89vg

Originally Posted by RNF

Do a search on youtube. Lots of video's there.

Here is one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppa1bxB89vg

Thanks for that! It was exactly what I was looking for. I see a spatchcock in my near future.

Spatchcock Is a great way to grill poultry .

I often spatchcock, quail, dove, grouse too.

I usually wrap a few bricks in tin foil and put on top of birds while cooking

Thanks for sharing

that looks SO good!

Ahhh the bachelor life is good!

Love my Keg....cooking machine.

Looks great. I was planning to do the same on my grill, and try out a new set of poultry shears.

I am surprised it took two hours to cook, though. I'm gonna do direct medium coals, thirty minutes per side should do it. If not, I'll adjust accordingly.

I got to thinking. The chicken on the grill reminded me of one of my old recipes from back in the 90's. I broiled that bird, but you could use the recipe and prep method on the grill as well.

Quote

Road Kill Chicken

I call this Road Kill Chicken, because its flattened out like if it were �road kill�

One 3 to 4 pound whole chicken
Three tablespoons of whole black pepper
One tablespoon kosher salt
One Habanera Pepper, seeds removed
As many garlic cloves as you like
Olive oil
Dried thyme

Method:
Place the chicken breast side down on the cutting board. Using kitchen shears, remove the backbone. Turn the bird over, and cut/pry out the keel bone. Using your fingers, separate the skin from the meat, but leave the skin on the bird.

In a mortar, crush the peppercorns. Add the salt, and thyme. Dice the pepper, and add to the mortar. Add in the garlic cloves. Using a grinding motion with the pestle, grind everything to a paste. Add in the Olive oil.

Spread this mixture under the skin of the bird. Drizzle olive oil on the skin, and salt it. Turn the bird over, and spread oil on that side, and salt it.

Place the chicken under a broiler, and cook about 10 min, until the skin starts to darken, and turn crisp. Remove the chicken, turn it over, and place it back under the broiler for another 10 to 12 min.

Remove, cool a few moments, separate pieces, and serve.

If desired, use the drippings to make gravy for the chicken:
Pour off the chicken fat, but reserve three tablespoons
Deglaze the pan with � cup white wine, scraping the crusty bits with a spoon
Put the Chicken drippings into a saucepan over med high heat. Add in three tablespoons of all purpose flour. Cook for about three min, stirring. Add in the liquid from the pan, and another 1 � cups warm milk. Whisk until it thickens, Season with salt, and black pepper.

I like it...

I hope I'm not missing something obvious, but what would be the advantage over cooking chicken halves bone side down? Chicken halves are readily available all over town here.

The Spatchcock method allows the chicken to lay flat cook evenly on both sides but you can accomplish the same thing with chicken halves if you separate the joints.

I use a boning knife to poke a hole and separate the thigh/leg joint, thigh/body joint, and the wing/body joint. It will lay flat and the holes allow marinade and/or seasonings to soak in. They cook evenly and avoid the red undercooked spots at the joints or overcooking the breast.

Halves are easy to flip over too. When I cook chicken halves on the grill with direct heat I have to flip them back and forth many times to avoid burning. Cooking halves are much easier than flipping a bunch of chicken parts and pieces.

That's kinda the idea...broiling, seasoning something intact is easier than when broken down. I have to believe the flavor will vary, too. Also, the spatchcock deal is a little more interesting as far as presentation.

+1 on the presentation.

The flavor doesn't vary so much but keeping it mostly intact and covered with skin makes it juicier. Having no skin definitely affects the flavor.

Quote

I use a boning knife to poke a hole and separate the thigh/leg joint, thigh/body joint, and the wing/body joint.

Wish I knew how to do that.

This sounds good. I season my bird the same pulling the skin away from the meat and rubbing with the seasoning.

Does the olive oil make the skin more crisp?

Originally Posted by sse

Looks great. I was planning to do the same on my grill, and try out a new set of poultry shears.

I am surprised it took two hours to cook, though. I'm gonna do direct medium coals, thirty minutes per side should do it. If not, I'll adjust accordingly.

sse,

Each time I basted the chicken the temps would drop back a few degrees so that increased cooking time.

Originally Posted by Mannlicher

I got to thinking. The chicken on the grill reminded me of one of my old recipes from back in the 90's. I broiled that bird, but you could use the recipe and prep method on the grill as well.

Quote

Road Kill Chicken

I call this Road Kill Chicken, because its flattened out like if it were �road kill�

One 3 to 4 pound whole chicken
Three tablespoons of whole black pepper
One tablespoon kosher salt
One Habanera Pepper, seeds removed
As many garlic cloves as you like
Olive oil
Dried thyme

Method:
Place the chicken breast side down on the cutting board. Using kitchen shears, remove the backbone. Turn the bird over, and cut/pry out the keel bone. Using your fingers, separate the skin from the meat, but leave the skin on the bird.

In a mortar, crush the peppercorns. Add the salt, and thyme. Dice the pepper, and add to the mortar. Add in the garlic cloves. Using a grinding motion with the pestle, grind everything to a paste. Add in the Olive oil.

Spread this mixture under the skin of the bird. Drizzle olive oil on the skin, and salt it. Turn the bird over, and spread oil on that side, and salt it.

Place the chicken under a broiler, and cook about 10 min, until the skin starts to darken, and turn crisp. Remove the chicken, turn it over, and place it back under the broiler for another 10 to 12 min.

Remove, cool a few moments, separate pieces, and serve.

If desired, use the drippings to make gravy for the chicken:
Pour off the chicken fat, but reserve three tablespoons
Deglaze the pan with � cup white wine, scraping the crusty bits with a spoon
Put the Chicken drippings into a saucepan over med high heat. Add in three tablespoons of all purpose flour. Cook for about three min, stirring. Add in the liquid from the pan, and another 1 � cups warm milk. Whisk until it thickens, Season with salt, and black pepper.

Gonna make this soon, but I'll substitute in fresh rosemary and jalapeno peppers...that's what's growing in the garden.

Originally Posted by RNF

This sounds good. I season my bird the same pulling the skin away from the meat and rubbing with the seasoning.

Does the olive oil make the skin more crisp?

If you're looking for the perfect crispy skin on chix then open air dry the bird in the fridge overnight. Works great!!

I will give it a try next time.

Did this yesterday. Didn't use Sam's recipe...rather a puree of herbs, garlic, lemon zest and EVOO...very tasty.

Will still try sam's recipe, then I plan to concoct a chicken diablo version using chile peppers from the garden.

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Nice.

That chicken looks good and so does the fresh tomatoes.

I also did another bird tonight. I did this one on the new pellet grill indirect heat. I think if I use the indirect heat again I need to raise my temps up to around 375 degree.
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Delectable...this spatchcock chicken thing is great fun.

Yeah those tomatoes are out of the garden. I have that second pic as desktop background...don't know how long I can take it, though...