Tag Archives: chicken

Butterfly a Chicken

I’ve been doing this quite often, but haven’t ever explained how. Butterflying the chicken is a way to make a chicken clean, open and flat, so it can be put in a rub or marinade. Also on the grill it grills slightly quicker, of course.

Rather easy.

First, you take the chicken and place it before you.

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Turn it over so the chicken’s spine is up front and the end of it is facing you.

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Now, take the end in your hand and cut alongside the spine, all the way up to the neck.

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Now, repeat this on the other side of the spine, and remove the spine in total.

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Throw that out, or use it to cook some chicken stock or something. You figure it out.
Next thing is to turn the chicken around so the neckside is facing you and slighlty open the cavity.

Find the white entry to the keel bone (or brestbone). make an incision there and move your fingers all the way around it to loosen it.

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Now peel it out from the soft side toward you. Don’t break it, get it out in one piece.

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Here you go, nice and clean and flexible in the middle.

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Now you can clean out excess fat and the red stuff that came from the spine that you cut out.

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I’ve rinsed it with cold wather and it’s ready for further preparation.

Eather rub it, or marinade it, cut of the wing tips or slice it straight in two, which is very easy now the keel bone is out.

Easy as 1-2-3.
Enjoy!

Grilled chicken with sour cream

Chicken, chicken, chicken. I’ve done it a milion times, but I wanted something else today. Time the kids learn the true meaning of different flavours. I’ve been thinking and using the internet, and I’ve found something I (and the kids) really love.

Grilled butterflied chicken with a sour cream under the skin. Not the easiest to do, but a great taste and good moisture.

To start with the sour cream semi-stuffing, you just use the following.

  • 3/4 cup of sour cream
  • 1/4 cup dice red onion, although I’ve used about twice that amount.
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1 teaspoon of dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon of dried dill
  • 1/2 a teaspoon of salt
  • 1/2 a teaspoon of black pepper

First, put the sour cream in a bowl and add the dried oregano and dill. Stir well and enjoy the smell. It smells great already.

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After this, I’ve chopped up 2 red onions and the garlic and put that in the blender. (lazy me, I know, but yeah. I just have the thing, so not using it is even worse, I guess). About 3 seconds later it’s done.

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Scoop it through the mixture and add the salt and pepper.

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Now put it aside and begin a new and uncharted journey into butterfly chicken….

To properly butterfly a chicken, you just have to remove the spine. Not that hard, if you have to correct tools for it, but with a simple knife, this can be tricky. I use a good pair of bone scissors. Love the thing!

I’ve started by cutting of the wing tips, as there is no meat on it whatsoever, and they tend to burn pretty quickly, not looking nice on your beautiful hot chick.

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Place the chicken, back up, bottom facing yourself on a board and start cutting it, alongside the spine, al the way up to the neck.

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Now repeat that step on the other side of the spine and remove the thing altogether. You can use it for some stock or just throw it away. You’re choice. I’ve threw it away.

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Now the fun part. Turn it back with the open side down and press down on the breast part until you hear 2 bones snap. This is the wishbone that either breaks or snaps out of place, allowing for a much more flat chicken.

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Once butterfly’d, or butterflied, (not sure, as I’m not native english …. 😉 ), start by pushing your fingers gently between the skin and the flesh and release it from the flesh, al the way down to the legs and back. It’s kind of an addictive job, as it feels pretty nice to do so …. or is that just me. The wings I left alone, since that would be too much to get the skin loose from. Just be careful not to puncture or break the skin.

Now, start spooning the opening up with the created sour cream and massage it all the way through. Nice job, that might take up some time too.

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After this nice massage of this good looking chick, just wrap it in and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour (preferably overnight), and take it out once you’re ready to go grilling.

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The grilling part is the easiest, of course, as allways.

Start by firing it up and prepare for indirect grilling on roughly 180-200 degrees Celcius.

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Now take out the chicken and rub it in with some olive oil and season it with salt and pepper.

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Can’t get it more spot on ;-). Keep it there for the next 1 – 1,5 hours. Place the chicken indirectly on the grill and close the lid up.

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After about 30 minutes, it’s just this. Nothing much, but it’s getting there!

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But after about 1 hour, just poke it with a fork and see if the fluids are nice and clearly white, that way you know it the chicken is perfectly cooked.

I’ve served it with rice and my very own home made sate sauce. Kids loved it, as always, haha!

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It’s a battlefield, once finished, but it was fantastic! Worth a try if you have some time to spare and a chicken and the rest of the ingredients lying around…

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Enjoy!

Rotisserie chicken in the kettle

I was about time that I dipped myself in the wonderful world of rotisserie on the BBQ. Last week, on my birthday, my dear brother, also a fanatic BBQ cook, brought me a rotisserie ring for the 57cm Weber OTP. This time, I had to give it a go myself.

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Spring Satay sticks on the grill

Last weekend, I decided it was about time to lite the Q again. It was way overdue, since I had some very busy weekends and no time to grill anything. I needed to smell the charcoal and meat again, as well as dive into some marinade with my bare hands. If you’re addicted, you need to keep your addiction alive, I guess.

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Chicken and lemon stew

Yess! It’s been way too long since I’ve fired up the DO, so this saturday it was time to dust the Oven off and get it lit up!

Chicken is the preferred cut, and I needed to figure out a nice recipe for cooking it, without sticking in the recipes I know and love already. Got me thinking, and suddenly …. #lightbulboverhead ….. lemon came to mind (and google).

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