2011 Cooking Club Week 33: Spatchcocked Chicken

olaola

Apologies for the late post!

This is a very simple thing to do, but once you know how to spatchcock a chicken - it's a very handy thing to add to your repertoire.



You can leave it plain, BBQ it, marinade it, put a rub on it. It cooks quickly and great for feeding a group. My favourite marinade is thanks to www.likemumusedtobake.com blog – it’s simple and v.delicious. My sister called it a ‘historic meal’

I’ll start with the chicken – all you need is the burd, a sharp knife and a kitchen scissors.
• Get yizzers chicken and turn it upside down, from the bee-hind (my mother called it the ‘popes nose’) cut close along the right side of the spine up to the neck.



• Repeat on the left side of the spine until it has been cut free from the carcass. I trim extra fat off at this stage too. !Don’t discard this spine, you can use it for stock!
• When the bird has been opened, flatten it out until you see the breastbone in the middle of the underside of the beast meat. With your knife, cut a lengthways ‘knick’ in the bone. You should be able, with little force, to ‘crack’ open the bird until it’s basically flat.



Now it’s time for cooking. I usually do the chicken on my gas BBQ, keep the BBQ at about 180 degC for 35-45 mins, depending on the size of the chicken. Turn it a few times, this keeps it nice and moist and it cooks evenly. You’ll know when the chicken is coming near done when the limbs fall off and you can literally shake the breast apart in two halves. Take out and rest for 10 mins if you have the time. You can start this in the oven if you prefer and then finish on the BBQ - this works well if you’re using charcoal and you can’t regulate the heat as precisely as the gas.

If you want to marinade it – this is my favourite recipe:
Soy garlic marinade
3-4 cloves of Garlic, minced/grated
1 x 5cm piece of Ginger, peeled and grated
1tsp Cayenne Pepper
2tbsp Brown Sugar
1tbsp Lemon Juice
2tbsp Honey
4tbsp Soy Sauce

Blitz it all together and put the marinade and the chicken in a bowl, coat well. An hour is good, a few is better. Keep some marinade for basting too.

Swampy

Looks amazing. If I may add, I did this very similar with a tandoori twist.

Basicaly spatchcocked as above. I cut thick scores into the meat. Got some tandoori masala powder. Couple of desert spoons mixed with couple of small tubs of natural yogurt. Marinaded for a good few hours, more the better. Then on to the gas bbq again as above. I ate the whole chicken... to myself.

olaola

Swampy wrote: »

Looks amazing. If I may add, I did this very similar with a tandoori twist.

Basicaly spatchcocked as above. I cut thick scores into the meat. Got some tandoori masala powder. Couple of desert spoons mixed with couple of small tubs of natural yogurt. Marinaded for a good few hours, more the better. Then on to the gas bbq again as above. I ate the whole chicken... to myself.

It's one of those basics you can add anything to. Dunno why I haven't been doing this for years!

Mellor

Also known as butterflying
I found this video makes it look very easy. This versions shows you how to remove the breastbone. I prefer removing it. To be tidier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-8tMEwBnSA