Spatchcock Chicken
When you need to cook a whole chicken, either for one meal, or for several throughout the week, one of the easiest ways is to Spatchcock the chicken. This involves cutting out the backbone of the chicken, ths is on the opposite side to the chicken breast. When looking at the chicken, you will be able to see the backbone of the chicken, take your chicken scissors, and cut along both sides of the backbone
Please ensure that your chicken is completely thawed and unfrozen, if you are using a frozen chicken
Open up your chicken, take your paper towels, path the chicken dry, place your chicken in a bowl, I usually line it with paper towels to absorb any excess juice, add a pinch of salt to the inside of the chicken, turn over and add a couple of pinches of salt all over the chicken skin, cover the bowl with the Saran Wrap, put this in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, this will help to keep moisture in the chicken
Take some Avocado oil all over the chicken, this only need to be enough to just about to lightly cover the chicken, this is used so the Salt Pepper Garlic rub has something to bind to, liberally sprinkle the Salt Pepper Garlic all over the chicken, for our taste, there is no such thing as too much Salt Pepper Garlic, leave this to absorb into the chicken skin as along as you can, 1 - 2 hours if preferable, i'm usually in a hurry, so 1 hour for me
Light your Kamado Big Joe II, no need for the indirect cooking ceramic plates, we're cooking straight over the burning charcoal, get your Kamado Big Joe II to at least 300f, ideally you want to be somewhere between 350f and 400f
Once your Kamado Big Joe II is up to temperature, place the chicken onto the grill grates, presentation side down (skin side down), spread the chicken out as much as possible, with as much of the skin facing down as possible, close your lid, set a timer for 15 minutes, this should crisp up the skin, you will need to adjust how long to leave cooking skin side down, to how you like your skin charred, turn of the chicken, skin side up, set a timer for 20 minutes to check on the chicken, test the temperature of the chicken, we are looking for 165 in the chicken breast, as this is the thickest part, it will take the longest to cook
Depending on your temperature, set a relevant time to finish cooking the chicken, typically no more than another 20 minutes, occasionally 30 Minutes, once the temperature of the breast is 165, take the chicken off the grill, let it rest for 10 minutes, then start carving, as we cooked 2 chickens, there is plenty for everyone, and leftovers, we will normally eat most of the first chicken in the first sitting
