Spatchcocked Jerk Chicken for Man Food Monday

Spatchcock, what a great name! I ran across a few articles about this when I was getting ready to deep fry the Turkey for Thanksgiving. So you get another 2 fer with this post. Spatchcocked Jerk Chicken for Man Food Monday is in 2 parts. The first part is a how to do a spatchcock, and the other is the jerk chicken recipe. So, read on and lets see how this goes.

Spatchcock is a method of preparing fowl for smoking,baking/broiling or grilling. What you will do is remove the back bone entirely as well as removing the breast bone so that the chicken will lay flat on the grill or in the pan. Michelle is the photographer extraordinaire and has taken all the pictures I am merely the hands that do the cutting. So follow along and lets get busy.

Getting the chicken ready takes a little pre-planing. I thawed the whole chicken for 2 days before getting it ready to cook. The second day of the thaw, I salt brined the whole chicken to give it a little more flavor. Then, I put together the jerk marinade this morning before I had to go to a scheduled meeting. Normally, I would do the spatchcock and then put the chicken in the marinade, but this morning I decided to put it in marinade before I left. You do not have to do it this way, I suggest you do the spatchcock first.

First thing is turn the chicken breast side down. You are going to want to use sharp kitchen shears and cut down both sides or it’s back bone to remove it.

Then, spread the chicken open and locate the breast bone. Using a sharp knife, you will want to cut along either side of the breastbone to remove it. You may need to use the kitchen shears to cut the attaching bones

Once the breast bone is removed the chicken will lay flat on the cook pan or grill.

Turn the chicken breast side up and place in the oven at 400° for 60 to 75 minutes or until the internal temp is 165°. If you are going to grill it you will need to per heat the grill to medium hot (400°) then place it breast side up for about 35 minutes and finish cooking breast side down for another 30 minutes or until it reaches 165° internal.

Spatchcocked Jerk Chicken for Man Food Monday

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Author: Steve Recipe type: Entree Cuisine: Caribbean
Ingredients Jerk Marinade

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1½ teaspoons dried thyme
• 3 dried Serrano peppers seeded and crushed or 4 habanero peppers seeded and chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
• 3 clove garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 tablespoons Canola oil
• ¼ cup fresh lime juice

brine

• 1 cup kosher salt in 1 gallon water

Chicken

• 1 whole chicken and brined over night in refrigerator
• spatchcock cut

Instructions

1. Thaw and brine the chicken over night.
2. Put together the Jerk marinade, place in blender and combine until smooth.
3. Take the chicken and spatchcock cut it.
4. Brush the chicken liberally with the jerk marinade and place in a Ziploc bag for at least 3 hours or overnight.
5. If you are grilling the Jerk Chicken, then preheat the grill, if you are baking the chicken preheat the oven to 400°
6. Remove the Jerk marinaded chicken place on the grill breast side up for 35 minutes then breast side down for 30 minutes or until the internal temp is 165° measured at the thigh.
7. If you are baking it place in a oven safe dish and bake for 45 minutes or until the internal temp is 165° measured at the thigh.

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The chicken turned out great. Doing the spatchcock was very easy, and it did shorten the cook time pretty significantly. There was just enough heat in the Jerk seasoning to give it that edge you want when having Caribbean flavored dishes. I used dried Serrano peppers that I had on hand here but you can opt to used fresh habanero peppers just remember to remove some or most the seeds and the veins (this is where all that evil heat lives). We served this with braised cabbage and yellow rice. This was a very satisfying meal, and if there are any leftovers…they make a great next day lunch!

I invite you to go give this a try!

Till next week take care,

Steve

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