We love great food, that’s why we are doing this. When two guys with a passion for cooking over fire started thinking of wood as an ingredient and not just a fuel, we realised we could rediscover those long-lost flavours within our food. And who doesn’t love barbequed chicken right? We love the stuff, and harnessing the triumphant cooking ability of the Big Green Egg along with half a bag of Woodsmith charcoal we set about cooking this delightful spatchcock chicken.
SERVES 4
Preparation Time: none
Cooking Time: 50 min
Lumpwood Charcoal
Heat: Medium
Ingredients:
1.5kg Spatchcock Chicken
25g The Smoky One
INSTRUCTIONS
Tip number one. Put the time in laying the groundwork in your egg or kettle barbeque. Ensure your fuel is burning well and glowing almost white with intense heat before scraping it to one side of your bbq and laying the grill on top. Pushing the fuel to one side means you can cook your bird over indirect heat which means that lovely skin won’t just burn and go to waste.
When you close the lid on your bbq the heat moves up and over the bird cooking it gently. If you want to crisp up that skin once the bird it cooked through, simply open the lid, turn the bird breast side down right on top of your pile of fuel and the skin will crisp and bubble whilst you wait there keeping an eye on it before taking it off the heat and resting once you have achieved your desired amount of char.
Tip number two. How do you know when it’s cooked? Of course you can probe it with a meat thermometer and a temperature of around 62C means it is cooked through yet still firm and moist. A slightly more old school way of telling if it is cooked is to carefully grab hold of one of the drumsticks and give it a twist. If it ‘gives’ then it’s cooked. The connective tissue between the drummer and the main carcass is the toughest part of the bird, so if that is cooked, so is everything else.
Now you know our tips cooking it well is easy, simply rub 25g of the rub all over the skin of the bird. Cook over a medium heat, around 160C for 45 minutes breast side up. Once cooked through, place breast side down for 5-10 minutes to crisp the skin.
