BBQ45/17: @RedsTrueBBQ Dirty Planked Spatchcock Chicken:
I still have a couple of Herb Fed chickens left and wanted to cook something a bit different. Looking through my books I found “Dirty Planked Spatchcock Chicken” in the Reds True BBQ book and knew I had to give it a shot!
The recipe says to make a brine, I didn’t bother I haven’t noticed a difference in taste or the juiciness of the chicken when brining or not brining. I think as long as you buy quality chicken you don’t need to brine.
The night before I made the Old Bay-style rub: Bay leaves, black peppercorns, cayenne pepper, cloves, celery salt, mustard powder, white pepper, nutmeg, ginger and paprika.
Next I made the Baste: Rapeseed oil, lemon juice, butter, sugar, cloves and onion granules. I also put the cedar planks in the sink to soak overnight.
On the day of the cook I spatchcocked the chicken and made a few slashes all over the meat before running skewers through the bird diagonally and rubbing the Old bay-style rub in.
Once the BBQ was ready I brushed the baste over both sides of the chicken then placed it directly onto the hot coals for 2 minutes, basted the top side then flipped the chicken over. I basted the top side and left it to cook for 2 minutes before flipping again. 12 minutes total. The butter in the baste was causing a fair amount of smoke!
I took the cedar planks out of water and lined them up ready to put the chicken on:
Once the chicken was on the planks I put the whole lot back directly onto the coals:
If it was smoky before the cedar planks caused a smoke storm!
I left it for 5 minutes then basted again. After 10 minutes I checked the internal temperature with the Thermapen and it was 75c so I took it off to rest for 10 minutes. The chicken looked way overdone, burnt and battered cause it was so black but it had been cooked direct on the coals so I was hoping it was ok!
I got some fresh sage, rosemary and tarragon leaves then chopped them finely, mixed them and scattered them over the chicken:
I took a slice out the chicken to see if it was juicy or dry………it was JUICY!
My wife cooked some veg to have with the chicken: Charred Chard!
I cooked the Roast Potatoes using Kenji’s recipe again, I have done these so often I need to cook something else or I will turn into a roast potato! These were the best ones yet, loads of beef dripping!
Now, my wife surprised me by grilling some peaches for desert and plated this up. It was outstanding! I will post the recipe up next.
Back to the chicken. This was a really, really nice dish. The charred skin/rub from cooking it direct on the coals was very good. The taste of the cedar planks really came through to the meat and added another dimension to the flavour. The tarragon was a nice touch too, not something I have used very often when cooking but I will use it again with chicken.
I couldn’t cook this too often due to the amount of smoke it kicks off. Might be best later at night when less folk are floating about and your neighbours don’t have washing out! lol
Don’t think I would change much on this recipe/cook – it came out really well.