Spatchcocked, oven roasted chuck with Teriyaki glaze.
It’s springtime now in Uruguay and we all look forward to Christmas holidays and the BBQ season. Several people wrote similar to me: „What does spatchcock mean?“ or „I’d never spatchcocked anything. Not a turkey, nor a chicken, how do you do it ?“ Here my friends my answer, its easy to do – just try it.
Spatchcocked, BBQ-ed chuck with Thai-marinade glaze.
What the heck is Spatchcock and Chuck ?
A spatchcock is a historical term for a culled immature male chicken, but increasingly denotes a preparation technique. It has been prepared for roasting or grilling by removing the backbone, and sometimes the sternum of the bird and flattening it out before cooking. The preparation of a bird in such a manner for cooking is more popularly known as butterflying the bird. Chuck is the Australian slang for chicken.
This technique is a nice way of saying “removing the backbone and laying the bird flat”, its always a winning recipe. By laying the bird flat, it cooks evenly and stays moist. Even the breast. And it doesn’t look so bad.
Two „spatchcock chucks“ ready for the „parrilla“.
Spatchcock = American for butterflying. Chuck = Australian for chicken. Parrilla = Spanish for BBQ-grill.
A spatchcocked, or butterflied, chicken cooks very well on the grill or in the oven and if you’ve ever heard of people referring to Brick Chicken, it’s a spatchcocked bird that has cooked under a foil-wrapped brick for an even quicker cooking time.
Now, this fancy word sounds like it’s a technique for the masters. Let me tell you, it’s not.
The brick chicken.
Spatchcock a chicken.
STEP 1: If your chicken is frozen, defrost it in the fridge overnight. Once it’s defrosted, pat it dry with a towel to remove any excess moisture. This will help you get a crispy skin when you roast or grill it. Lay the chicken on it’s breast.
STEP 2: By putting your fingers inside the cavity, feel for the edge of the backbone. Cut along one side of the backbone, all the way across the chicken. Repeat for the second side of the backbone. Store the backbone and the neck for making soup or stock another time.
Step 3: Now remove the keel bone between the breasts. It’s easy with a few little cuts from inside the chicken as shown below.
Step 4: Turn the bird over and use the palm of your hand to put pressure on the chicken breast to flatten the bird. Don’t worry if you hear bones crack. That’s a good thing. It means your chicken is laying flat and even.
Step 5: It’s important to keep your chicken flat during BBQ-uing. Some people use the „brick method“, but I prefer to use two long shashlik sticks. If you use those sticks the turnover procedure is much easier and you don’t have to mack around with a brick . And don’t forget to soak wooden sticks in water before using them.
Now that your chicken is flat on your baking tray, you can brine (soak in or saturate with salty water) it for 24 hours, which is an excellent idea, or simply season it with your favorite family recipe before roasting it at 450F (220C) for about 40 minutes.
Check the internal temperature of the chicken after 30 minutes. When cooking a chicken evenly and at a higher temperature, it will roast quickly and you don’t want an overdone chicken. Once your meat thermometer is reading 165F (90C) at the thickest point of the chicken then you’re ready to take the chicken out of the oven or off the BBQ.
Oven roasting is clean and quick, but I prefer the open fire on a BBQ. The smell, the taste and the whole atmosphere is mouthwatering.
As you would with a roast or a steak, please let your chicken rest for ten minutes before carving it. All those yummy juices and flavors will be absorbed into the chicken if you give it a few minutes. Here one recipe for you with a different marinade.
BBQ roasted with a homemade marinade.
Tequila Citrus marinaded chicken.
Ingredients.
One 4 pound (2 kg) chicken, neck and giblets removed
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Tequila Citrus Marinade.
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 cup Tequila
4 garlic cloves, sliced
1 jalapeno chilli, minced (or any other hot chilli)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 cup minced cilantro (optional)
1 teaspoon kosher salt + salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon pepper + pepper to taste
1 cup olive oil
How to do.
To prepare chicken, cut out backbone, remove keel bone and flatten down, as shown above.
Cover with marinade and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Thirty minutes before cooking, remove from marinade, shake off excess and season with salt and pepper.
Preheat charcoal or gas grill to medium-high heat, or oven to 375F (190C).
Place chicken breast-side down, and grill, turning every 15 minutes or so, for about 50-60 minutes, basting with each turn.
Remove from grill and let rest 10 minutes before carving.
Tequila Citrus Marinade.
Whisk all ingredients in a bowl except the olive oil.
In a slow stream, whisk in olive oil until well combined.
Pour over chicken, cover and marinate at least 4 hours or overnight.
Remove chicken and wipe off excess herbs or peppers. Season with additional salt and pepper.
Move marinade to a small saucepan, and bring to a vigorous boil over high heat for 5 minutes.
Grill according to the recipe, using the boiled marinade to baste chicken during cooking.
How delicious is this ?? Go ahead and try !!
Tips.
The above shown marinade is plenty for a 2kg (4pound) chicken. Be careful – in Uruguay the chicken are „elephant size“, around 3,5kg-4,0kg (up to 8pound). That means you have to double your marinade.
As one can see, this Uruguayan „chickenphant“ is filling up almost the whole Weber Grill Pan. Some are turkey size here. ENJOY !!!
