Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Grilling a Whole Chicken

We love whole roasted chicken, and we also love grilled chicken, so we wanted to put them together!  To grill a whole chicken, it should be butterflied first, so it can lay flat on the grill.  To do this, you have to cut out the backbone.  Fun times!  I used a pair of sturdy, sharp kitchen shears, and it wasn't really easy.  Too bad my husband wasn't home- I totally would have made him do it.  Anyway, I found this YouTube vid extremely helpful, and watched it a few times before starting. 

After that whole thing, I layed the chicken out in a 9x13 pan and poured some marinade over it- I was going to make my own lemon/rosemary marinade, but was too tired after all the work of butterflying.  So I got out my trusty, store bought, all-purpose marinade, Goya Mojo Criollo.  It's garlicky, oniony, and citrusy.  Very good. 

A whole butterflied chicken takes anywhere from 45-60 minutes to grill.  We grilled it alongside these potatoes, and we also had a creamy cucumber salad.  Everything was so good!  The kids LOVED the chicken; they kept eating and eating it; the whole chicken was gone in no time, and they all wanted more. 
Grilled Whole Chicken

1 whole chicken, guts removed, and butterflied
marinade of your choice

1.  Place butterflied chicken in a large baking pan with sides, and pour marinade over.  Refrigerate for a few hours, until ready to grill. 

2.  Oil grill grates, and pre-heat grill to medium-high heat.  Place chicken on grill, and cook for 45-60 minutes, turning every 15 minutes or so.  If chicken is cooking too quickly or there are grill flare-ups (because of the dripping fat), turn down the grill.  Test the temperature with a meat thermometer; it should register 165-170 degrees in the thickest part when it is done. 
Sorry for the unflattering shot, Ms. Chicken.

**This post and photos are property of http://dishingwithdish.blogspot.com/ **

3 comments:

Linda said...

Great post! Did you cut it up to serve it, or did everyone just kind of pull off what they wanted? I've never seen this done before & it looks really, really good!

What a Dish! said...

Dh ended up breaking it into pieces as it was grilling, to make it easier to turn. When we ate though, we did pull off the meat for the kids.

LadyJayPee said...

The video makes it look pretty straightforward. I'd like to give it a try. Thanks for the post!