BBQ92/17 – Persian Style Chicken:
With UK BBQ Week approaching I asked a friend of mine what sort of recipes he wanted to see on the website and he replied “Spatchcock chicken” which is a good shout as it’s a good and easy way to cook chicken on the grill.
My cook list had Persian Style chicken written down but no link to a recipe so I had a bit of a Google around and found this one in the Sainsbury’s magazine which I used and adapted slightly. I added a chicken to my order with Turner and George and waited for delivery.
The Prep:
I placed the chicken breast side down on a chopping board and cut away the backbone with a pair of scissors. I have wrecked a few pairs of scissors doing this now so really must buy some poultry shears! With the bone away I pushed down firmly with the back of my hand then slashed the breasts and thighs with a knife.
The spice rub ingredients (cumin seeds, saffron, dried chilli, black peppercorns, garlic cloves, flat leaf parsley, lemon zest and rapeseed oil) went into a pestle & mortar for a good beating then I rubbed it all over the chicken. I left the chicken in the fridge overnight.
Next day, I fired up a full chimney of Oxford Charcoal Hardwood Blend, poured it into the charcoal baskets to cook indirectly and left it to settle for a while.
The Cook:
With the grill set up I placed the chicken in the cooler, indirect cooking zone and added some lemon wood chips from Hot Smoked.
I was banking on the chicken taking about 90 minutes to cook so I checked back every 15 minutes. It was taking on some nice colour:
I added a few more wood chips and placed them directly onto the grill above the charcoal.
45 minutes in the colour of the chicken was fantastic and the mix of the spice rub, wood chips and charcoal was smelling good.
At 70 minutes it was getting close to 75c internal. The recipe has a salad dressing made from rapeseed oil, pomegrante molasses, lemon juice and sugar. I made extra and basted the chicken with it. After a couple of regular bastes I flipped the chicken over to cook directly over the charcoal to try and crisp the skin up a bit, the charcoal had calmed down a bit so it didn’t flare up and the skin crisped up quite nicely.
Once the temperature was at 75c all over I took it off to rest for 15 minutes.
Time to Eat:
The salad was simply rocket leaves with some of the salad dressing and some pomegranate seeds.
I really enjoyed this meal. Something quite different in terms of the rub and the salad. It was simple to prepare and cook but had quite a different taste from the spice rub, baste and lemon wood chips. I will cook this one again.
| Cook Equipment: | Weber Grill |
| Cook Method: | Indirect |
| Charcoal: | Oxford Charcoal Hardwood Blend |
| Smoking Wood: | Lemon wood chips |
| Cook temperature: | 250c |
| Cook time: | 1h 20m |
| Internal temperature: | 75c |
| Notes: | No changes really. |