Butterflied Grilled Chicken

Per our usual weekly routine, Chris and I went to Whole Foods this past weekend to find something new and exciting to cook. Having exhausted the "unusual meats" category (bison steak, beef shank, etc.), we decided to make an effort at the one meat that has always eluded us: chicken.

In fact, one of my very first posts talked about our utter lack of skill in cooking a chicken.

So this past weekend, I went up to the meat counter, and asked for a chicken.

"Do you want that butterflied?"

I hadn't thought of that! I told him we were going to be grilling, and he suggested giving it a try. So he did a thorough job of butterflying it, removing the backbone, and removing the kill bone.

Consulting the cooking bible when we got home, we set about making a grilled butterflied chicken.

The result?

Oh. my. goodness.

Amazing.

I will never make a whole chicken any other way, ever again. It was flavorful, tender, and downright incredible.


Grilled Butterflied Chicken

Brine:
1/4 cup salt
2 tbs italian seasoning
1 tbs garlic pepper
Water

1 small butterflied chicken
Olive oil
Chopped garlic
Italian seasoning
Garlic Pepper


Mix the salt, italian seasoning, and garlic pepper with enough water to cover the chicken in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

When you're ready to cook the chicken, remove it from the brine and discard the liquid. Rub the chicken with olive oil, chopped garlic, Italian seasoning, garlic pepper, and any other combination of flavorful spices you want to use.



Let the chicken rest for 15 minutes to warm up a little.

Place chicken on a hot grill skin/breast side down. Let cook for 10-12 minutes.



Flip over and if using a grill with multiple burners, kill just the burner directly underneath the chicken to keep it from scorching; leave the other burner(s) on. Close the lid and let the chicken cook for another 15-20 minutes, monitoring temperature to keep it between 350 and 400.



Finally, flip the chicken back over again, and turn the burner beneath the chicken on. Cook for another 5 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 175.

Remove from grill and let sit for 5 minutes.

Grab a fork and dig in!