♫ Gonna smoke me a fatty brisket,
♫ got my barbecue shoes on.
♫ Gonna smoke me a fatty brisket,
♫ got my barbecue shoes on.
♫ I've got my Natural case, I've got the hogs on the run.
(saxophone playing)
On the BBQPitBoys.com today,
we're cooking up a spatchcock chicken on the grill,
and it's real easy to do.
Alright, here I've got a whole bird.
This is about a five pound fryer.
This technique works better
on the smaller chickens like this.
Now, what is spatchcock chicken?
It's essentially a style of cooking chicken.
It's a split chicken but you remove the backbone in it.
And this is what I'm doing right here.
You can use shears specifically designed for this,
or you can use your big old hickory.
You just cut that backbone right out, just like that.
Now, why would you use this technique for cooking a chicken?
Well, first of all, it'll cook faster
than doing a whole chicken, alright, that's good.
And because we leave the skin on the chicken,
it'll remain nice and moist, and of course, tender
during about a 45 minute to an hour cook.
Alright, the chicken has been split,
the backbone has been removed,
and now what we want to do is add some seasoning.
And I'm going to apply the seasoning right under the skin,
over the chicken breast here, because as you know,
the chicken breast is not a lot of flavor
compared to the dark meat.
So what you want to do is get your favorite
seasoning or spice, add it to some oil,
and get it right under the skin, right on the breast meat.
Oh yeah, again, spatchcock chicken is simply a technique.
It's up to you to flavor it the way you want.
Alright, now well apply some of the seasoning to the skin,
of course, this is just a layer of flavor,
it will not get into the meat underneath.
But the flavoring also hits
under the bottom of the chicken here,
and just get that, those spices in there and rub it in.
Alright, now, we're gonna be cooking this on the grill.
Indirect, opposite to hot coals,
a technique we often use on these kettles.
And we're gonna put it opposite the hot coals
with a grill temperature about of 350 degrees fahrenheit.
Oh yeah, looks good enough to eat already.
Now, it'll take about 45 minutes to an hour,
you want to cook your chicken to about 165 degrees internal.
And through the miracle of time,
we're about halfway through this.
And what we're gonna do with this one,
is we're gonna hit it with some sauce.
We're gonna mop it on.
Use your favorite sauce.
You can go all kinds of ways with this.
Hot and spicy, sweet, that's pit master privilege.
You can see how much juice is being retained into that bird.
Again, it's the technique that works, alright.
Now you might want to do this a couple times
during this cook, that's up to you.
Alright, another 20 minutes to go, maybe.
And of course, when we're cookin',
the food police are lookin'.
Alright, take a look at that.
Man, I'm just gonna hit it one more time.
Again, we're building a layer of flavor,
so when you bite into that skin, yeah baby.
Alright, maybe another 10, 15 minutes.
And through the miracle of time,
this spatchcock chicken is done.
Take it off the grill.
Man, can you smell that?
It smells good.
Now before cutting into this bird,
I'm gonna let it rest, maybe about 10 minutes.
Alright, I say it's time to eat.
Take a look at that.
Oh man, it's literally falling apart.
Moist, tender, evenly cooked.
I just happen to have a plate and sides on here.
We're serving a half chicken a plate.
Served with taters, slaw.
Are you getting hungry or what?
Yeah, now of course, I do apologize
for eating in front of you like this,
but we call this pit master privilege.
Mm, oh, mm.
So the next time you're looking for a chicken recipe
for your pit, check us out, BBQPitBoys.com
(bird crowing)