Spatchcock chicken is one of my favorite ways to cook chicken. By removing the backbone the chicken will lay flat on the grill for an even cook and great presentation. Since you are cooking an entire chicken everyone gets their choice of white or dark meat so everyone ends up happy.
Ingredients
- 1 Whole Chicken
- Olive Oil
- Historic Red
- Apple Juice
- Historic Sweet Zing
Instructions
To spatchcock the chicken, use kitchen shears (or a knife if you don't have shears) to cut down each side of the backbone and remove it. Flip the bird over and press down to split the breastbone and get the chicken as flat as you can - that will help it cook evenly. If you want to take your spatchcocking to the next level you can completely remove the ribs and breastbone my running your knife between the bone and the breast meat. Doing that will make the chicken extra flat and easy to break down after cooking.
Lightly coat both sides of the chicken with olive oil and a season with Historic Red or your favorite BBQ rub. (Traeger's Chicken or Pork and Poultry rub are also great options.)
Put the chicken skin side up on your grill or smoker at 350°F. I like to use a hickory pellet on my Trager when cooking chicken.
Cook the chicken till the breast meat reaches an internal temperature of 160°F. That should take about 60 minutes. For the last 10 minutes of cooking brush the chicken with Historic Sweet Zing slightly thinned out with a splash of apple juice.
Be sure to share your spatchcocked chicken on social media and let everyone know how it turned out!