Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Spatchcock Chicken on the grill....

Tried it for the first time yesterday,

Gotta be honest, game changer, quite the cool concept. The entire bird cooks so much more evenly.

Remove the backbone with shears, which took the wife a minute , and then flatten the bird,

Got a little fancy with a 12 hour soak in a brine solution,

then onto the grill.

Not too often cooking or grilling excites me but man that bird was tasty...............

What did you soak it in?

Cider.....
Sorry. Couldnt resist.
I love a good spatchcockin! Im waiting until after the holidays to snatch up some clearance turkeys. Gonna be some turkey cookin going on!

That was on her end, some salt and sugar mixture I believe. about 3/4 cup of each, 8lb bird. bird fully submerged.

Try it halved like that, the bird lays flat on the grill, skin side down. The breast and the quarters should be done about the same time, Tuck the wings underneath, Crispy seasoned skin to die for. When done the full quarters separated from the bird like never seen before.

That chicken was pic worthy, I just wasn't about to waste time, That quarter hit the plate and things went real.

Only way to smoke a bird too. Makes it easy and fast.

Leg / Thigh ?

Mmmmmmmmmmm !

I didn’t know that had a fancy name. I’ve just called it a split bird.

[quote=Kenneth]That was on her end, some salt and sugar mixture I believe. about 3/4 cup of each, 8lb bird. bird fully submerged . An 8 pound chicken.......really?

Yep, 8-10 ponders are the norm here, if you buy from Amish, Mennonite or Hutterite communities !

& they are delicious, not dry, nor tough !

yep, that bird was just under 8 by ounces, She has another in the fridge about the same size for this weekend.

Now just visualize that oversize quarter on my plate........wowza!

Not at all unusual, especially for home-raised. Last year we had three rooster that were so big at butcher time......how big were they?
Big enough that I went back in the house to fetch the bathroom scale.

They weighed 9, 9.5, and 10 pounds.
Everyone I know heard about my 10 pound cock!

Didn't mean to scare y'all off!

Totally agree about spatchcocking a chicken for the grill. Started doing this 3 years ago when we began raising our own birds. Amazing results every time. Usually takes about 1-1 1/2 hours for me but I do low and slow. It's nice when I have to fight the kids for leftovers 😜

Never heard it called spatchcocking until the late 90’s before then it was always butterflying.

I do a modified Alton Brown method of chicken on the grill.

Take a cast iron fry pan and put in on the grill off to one side away from the flames. I use a gas grill (gasp!), but have a smoke box for wood chips (foil pouch works good, too). Get the grill up to 500f. You can use the thermometer in the top of the grill, but it's not that accurate. I've got a dual thermometer, one for the meat and the other to monitor cook temps.

I put in the chips at this point to get them lightly smoking by the time I start the chicken

While the grill/pan is heating up, butcher the chicken by cutting out the spine. Then flip it over on it's now spineless back and press down on the breast to flatten it out a bit. Put on your favorite rub. Personally I like a mix of dark chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, ground thyme, salt and pepper. Be sure to get both sides coated well. Mesquite goes good with this rub. Some times I'll do a fresh thyme, garlic, and butter rub. Then I like alder.

When the grill with the pan has been up to temp for about 5-10 minutes, place the bird breast down in the pan, still off to the side. Chips should be smoking. Try to reduce the temp to around 450.

After 30 minutes flip the bird. Continue roasting until the bird is up to temp (160-165 thigh) and the leg joint is loose . Usually it 40-60 minutes total cook time.

Smoky Delicious goodness.

i have been using the spathcock method for chicken, game hens, quail, turkey pheasant and brine my birds

Cant beat the hutterite chickens.Always pick up a dozen when hunting in Montana

one of my favs is the jerked recipe on the grill using spatchcock method

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/jerk-chicken-recipe0-1908640

have to try that

Blows beer can chicken outta’ the water..