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SPATCHCOCK CHICKEN
(on the Large Big Green Egg or the Traeger Lil Tex )
Consider this the basic technique to make "spatchcock" or "butterflied" chicken.
Start with one whole chicken (or 2 as we have done here) ... remove from the pack..... remove all the stuff stashed inside (neck, gizzards and whatever the rest of that stuff is!) .... rince everything off with cold water. (Mrs. SmokinGuitarPlayer even rinses off the stuff she's throwing away)
Then take your trusty poultry shears (Like for instance your Steve Raichlen signature poultry shears). Turn the bird over so the breast is "down" and proceed to cut next to the backbone on the one side...all the way from the backend cavity to the neck cavity. Next take your shears, and cut along the remaining side of the backbone and remove the backbone and toss with the rest of the nasty parts...now you can "spread" your chicken out and see its insides ....usually not so pretty.
At this time, I usually return to the sink and once again, thoroughly rinse under cold water, removing any funny looking things still left inside the chicken... drain and pat dry with paper towel.
Get your cooker going to around 350 or 375. Put on your chicken, bone side down, and in an hour to 1.5 hours it's done.
To test for doneness, take your thermometer and measure deep in the thigh area ..you need 180 and it'll be really done good.
Our pictures show the chicken on the ceramic cooker using the indirect method. You can also do this direct as the bone side down sort of protects the meat but I suggest that you raise your grate as far from the charcoal as possible. Of course you can do it on a gas grill and you will also have excellent results and, of course, on the Traeger we "automatically" have indirect so it works easily and perfectly.
Here it is shown on my "trusty krusty" Large Big Green Egg on the left, and accompianied by potatoes and peppers on the Traeger Lil Tex on the right!
Enjoy !
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