The holiday spirit is in the air, and while everything is bound to be Eggnog or Gingerbread flavoured in no time, we’re opting to skip that for the time being and get our spatchcock on. Why? Because Eggnog spiced chicken would be gross, and spatchcock is fun to say. If you don’t let out a little giggle every time you hear or say it, you are obviously dead inside.
Now preheat your salt plate, smash up that chicken, grab a beer, and let’s get spatchcookin’.
Spatchcocked Chicken on a Himalayan Salt Plate
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon herbs de Provence
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon Maldon sea salt (or other flaked sea salt)
¼ cup finely chopped fresh parsley
1 3-4 pound whole chicken
Parboiled vegetables to grill
Special supplies:
Instructions:
In a small bowl, combine the garlic powder, herbs de Provence, pepper, salt, and parsley. Mix it up.
Place your chicken on a large cutting board; cut any strings off, and ensure there are no surprises (organs and whatnot) inside.
With the breast side up, take your kitchen/meat shears and cut out the breastbone. Flip the chicken over, and snip along either side of the spine; remove the spine.
Typically, you’d only remove the spine when preparing a spatchcocked chicken, but in this case, you want to also remove the breastbone to ensure an extra flat chicken. This also allows you to smush in more of the rub, as the meat is open on both the front and the back.
Take your bowl of garlicky goodness and rub it all over the chicken. Like, everywhere. Under the skin, when you can, front, back, wings, legs, and any other available body parts. (The chicken's, not yours).
Transfer it to a deep baking dish and cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate for one hour.
While the chicken and spices are getting to know one another, place the salt plate on a cold grill. Turn your barbecue on to low heat, cover, and continue to gradually increase the heat to medium over the next hour.
Place the chicken on the plate. Cover the grill and keep it closed for 40 minutes.
Check the temperature of the chicken using an instant-read meat thermometer. The goal here is 165 degrees Fahrenheit. If you’re not there yet, close the lid and let the chicken do its thing. Check the temperature again. Once it’s reached 165 (should take roughly an hour, total) it’s done!
Transfer the chicken to a serving dish.
While the chicken is getting chopped up and ready to serve, take some parboiled veggies (potatoes, asparagus, or really anything you’d like), toss them in oil and some ground pepper, and place them on the still-hot salt plate. Cook for a few minutes, and serve alongside the chicken.
Divvy up your grilled goodies and enjoy!