First spatchcock chicken

[Andy Kaminski]

I did a spatchcock bird last night for the first time
It wasn’t bad but it was so so at best.

I deboned the chicken other than the wings and legs and that turned out well.
I did a SPG dry brine the night before on a rack on a cookie sheet and that looked fine.
It started going south when I used Weber’s salt free chicken rub.
Didn’t much care for it and thought that it effected the skin texture I was looking for.
For fuel I used Kingsford, Mesquite and a couple of apple chunks in a single Weber basket.
I don’t think that this was the right choice either because it was hard to keep from spiking the temp.
My temp gauges are up at our other place and all I had was a $7 Walmart cheapo .
The inexpensive Walmart special worked fine for what it was but wasn’t my Bluetooth one I have up north.
I tried to keep the temp near 375 and even used soaked corn as a heat sink.
The cook took 95 minute.
The meat was very juicy and properly done but skin wasn’t crispy, and it was a little too smokey for me.
We made tacos, burritos and I had quesadillas with my portion.
Everyone like it, me not so much.
Next time I’m going to stick to what works best for me and that’s Italian dressing w/sriracha on a dry slow and sear.
The family and guests liked it so it’s kind of a win and I’ll take that

 

[LMichaels]

Perhaps deboning altered cook speed and such to where it made things not turn out so well. I make no secret either that I am no fan of the dry bring. Like putting vanilla beans in savory dishes, burning butter and calling it delicious, or putting strong herbs like tarragon in desserts seems to be all the rage these days. I season then cook.

 

[Andy Kaminski]

Ehh, for this I think the dry brine was the right choice.
I wanted dry skin.
For other cooks I can see your point.

Me?
I’m just a simple guy with an engineering background and some steamfitter experience.
I have yet to understand how some of these so called experts on youtube will tell you that the dry salt brine will remove moisture/water from your protein and then return it.
I get the season overnight thing but taking away the moisture and then having it come back?
Well that just seems like magic to me.
Could be my hearing aids weren’t in.
I dunno.

 

[Chuck-roaniecowpony]

I've tried using a bit of baking powder on the surface (tossed). It works, but you can definitely tell it's there. Deep frying is really the best results, IMO.

 

[Richard Garcia]

We only buy six(6) large Costa Rican Chicken Legs which are cut-in-half and marinated overnight in my wife’s chimichuri sauce . The twelve(12) pieces are seared over direct heat on my Weber Performer Deluxe(WPD) for a few minutes and then moved over the indirect heat for about one(1) hour. I generally pull the chicken off the WPD when reaching a internal temperature of 175F. Oh, my Costa Rican wife does not follow any type of recipe index for the marinade as she adds “a little of this and that”.

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

Have you considered that the corn “heat sink” may have caused enough of an increase of humidity and lowered the temperature to have caused the less than crispy skin?
I don’t see any reason that removal of the backbone would cause ANY difference in skin texture, my spatchcock birds take about an hour to an hour and a half depending on size and weather conditions so, time does not seem too out of line.

 

[Brett-EDH]

Three things I see here. Due to the amount of seating on the skin, you needed an oil rub on the skin after the fridge dry brine. Your drone brine should have been salt only. And due to so much seasoning, you needed to be at 425°to get the fat to crisp up the seasoning and skin.

 

[ZachMendel]

Three things I see here. Due to the amount of seating on the skin, you needed an oil rub on the skin after the fridge dry brine. Your drone brine should have been salt only. And due to so much seasoning, you needed to be at 425°to get the fat to crisp up the seasoning and skin.

Yeah it's possible that the heavy dusting prevented the moisture on the skin from evaporating off in the fridge. One mitigation is to start the cook skin side down, but I don't know if even I'm that crazy

 

[Bill D-NC]

I have never "dry brined" with SPG. What I have done is let the chicken (in this most often wings) rest overnight in the fridge dusted with baking powder. If I was going to marinade, it would usually be Italian Dressing, most often Stevie's, but I can't find it anywhere anymore.

Also, for crispy skin, I will usually try to use my Vortex as much as possible when cooking chicken.




BD