Flatten Out Your Butterflied Poultry On The Grill With One Extra Tool

You might be surprised to learn that there are more ways to cook a whole chicken than just in the oven. Granted, one can always run out and pick up a rotisserie chicken from Costco, but that still leaves you with a pretty predictable dinner without many options for customization.

However, there is a way to make a fully homemade chicken dinner in a fraction of the time compared to oven-roasting. First, you need to butterfly your bird to flatten it out, and then you can pop it in on a hot grill for a smoky, succulent chicken. But the real secret is a foil-wrapped brick that helps press the chicken down to make cooking the bird quick and even. Although home cooks probably don't keep a brick in their cupboards alongside their pans, they might have one in the yard. A regular old brick is key for even cooking and deliciously charred, flame-kissed skin when grilling your spatchcocked bird. After cleaning the brick and wrapping it in foil, it can then be placed on top of the bird for the duration of the cooking time. Italians actually call this dish pollo al mattone, or chicken under a brick.

If you don't have a backyard barbecue, the same process can also be done when roasting chicken in the oven or searing it in a skillet. I have even used other heavy objects like a cast iron pan to press the chicken down — it's all about applying even pressure on your bird.

Butterfly your bird

Butterflying is the process of slicing almost all the way through a piece of meat (like a chicken breast, pork loin, or shrimp) and folding it open like a book. The purpose is to make it evenly thin, which helps with heat distribution and creates more surface area to touch the heating element. 

On a whole chicken, the process is called spatchcocking. Instead of slicing into the flesh, spatchcocking a chicken involves placing the bird breast side down on a cutting board and using a chef's knife or kitchen shears in order to cut out the backbone. 

You can roast bird cut this way in the oven, but it is absolutely essential if you want to try out this brick hack. A spatchcocked chicken can now come in even contact with the grill, so you can get that sumptuous charring that makes everyone's mouths water. Because flattening the chicken and weighing it down also speeds up the cooking time, the chicken has more room to quickly get brown and crusty on the outside while remaining juicy on the inside.

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