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butterflied, grilled chicken
This is our favorite recipe for whole chicken and I love cooking it on the grill. You could also make it in the oven by adjusting cooking times. Its both versatile and economical. By adjusting the spices used, you can make it Tex-Mex or Italian or Indian or any of a dozen different cuisines. It’s economical, too, because a 5-pound chicken will feed two people, plus give plenty of leftovers for use in other dishes. A 7-pound chicken will do the same for four people or more.
Ingredients:
4 to 5-pound whole chicken
For the brine:
12 Tablespoons table salt (or 24 Tablespoons Diamond-brand kosher salt)
12 Tablespoons sugar
2 quarts water4-8 Tablespoons butter
herbs and spices
pepper, to taste
Directions:
Remove the chicken from its wrapper, take out the neck and giblets and set them aside, and then thoroughly rinse the bird inside and out. This cleans out any old juices are any other kind of gunk from processing that could leave off-flavors or worse.
Set aside the neck, but discard the giblets. Flip over the chicken so that the back is up, and using your kitchen shears cut down either side of the backbone, removing it. Also cut off large pockets of fatty skin hanging off the ends of the bird. Reserve the backbone with the neck in either the refrigerator or freezer to use for stock.
Flatten the bird on the board. You may need to use a chef’s knife to split the breastbone to make it spread open more easily. Make slits on either side of the breasts near the legs and tuck the legs in.
Mix the sugar and salt with the water to make the brine in a large bowl, pot, or Dutch oven. Place the chicken in, and weight with a heavy plate or other object to keep it immersed if necessary. Refrigerate for at least 2 and up to 4 hours. If the container won’t fit in your refrigerator, either place cold pack in the brine with the chicken or put in large cooler with ice or cold packs.
Remove the chicken from the brine and rinse well, drying thoroughly with paper towels. Make sure legs are still tucked in.
Start your grill. For a charcoal grill and using a chimney starter, fill a 6-quart starter with charcoal and light. For a propane grill, light and pre-heat.
Mash the butter, which is at room temperature but not melted, in a medium bowl. Add your spices, which should equal about 2 or 3 Tablespoons total. You may use a variety of spices for different regional cuisines. For a Tex-Mex taste, mix in 1 Tablespoon chili powder and 1 Tablespoon cumin. For something a little more Southwestern, use 2 teaspoons chipotle or ancho chile powder with 1-1/2 Tablespoons of cumin. Other possibilities includes 1 Tablespoon each of thyme and tarragon; 2 Tablespoons of rosemary with lemon slices added to the butter on the chicken; 4-6 Tablespoons of pesto instead of the butter; or 1-1/2 teaspoons each of curry powder, turmeric, coriander, and garam masala (if available). Also add pepper, to taste. (Additional salt is not necessary because of the brining.)
Run a finger inside the skin on the breasts and the thighs to loosen it and form a pocket. Put at least a Tablespoon of the butter mixture in each pocket formed, and perhaps two on the breasts.
Return to the grill and for charcoal, pour into two equal piles on either side of the grill, leaving the center section open. For propane, leave only one or two burners running (depending on how many burners you have). After cleaning the grate and oiling using tongs and a little vegetable oil on paper towels, place the chicken on the part of the grill without coals or burners under it. The idea is to cook with indirect heat.
The chicken should be placed with the skin side up so that as the butter melts it will run down and baste the chicken. Cover the grill and cook for 30 minutes. Flip and continue cooking for about 30 minutes more for a 5-pound chicken (more for a larger bird, about 20-25 minutes for a 4-pound chicken). It is done when it has reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees measured in the deepest part of the thigh using an instant-read thermometer.
Move to a platter or pan and loosely cover with foil for 10 minutes to let it continue cooking and reach a final internal temperature of 170-175 degrees.
Note: For the last ten minutes of grilling, you could place various vegetables drizzled in oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper—such as peppers, zucchini, squash—right over the coals or burners next to the chicken. More delicate vegetables—like asparagus—should go on the part of the grill without direct heat underneath.
COMMENTS
I tried this last night using my Weber Gas grill and loved it. The grill maintained about 355 degrees and it cooked for a little over an hour. I mixed the butter with Herbs de Provence and added a couple of 2 inch bacon strips on each breast under the skin and one in each leg which added another dimension which was nice. The sugar/salt solution definitely added volume to the meat and kept is moist. We’ll definitely do try this again. PG
Posted by
on 07/31/06 at 08:38 AMEverything is better with bacon!
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