saturday spatchcocking

jamie does it, nigella does it, and now we do it!  saturday we incorporated this simple method for a perfect grilled chicken--simply cut down the backbone with some kitchen sears and whack it flat and

voilà you have a chicken suitable for throwing on the barbie.  

first we made the "best barbecue sauce"  using everything in our pantry from hungarian paprika to fennel seeds.  the recipe calls for a mortal & pestle techinique (going on my christmas list!) but owen & i improvised by first toasting (worth it!) the whole spices then using our "spice grinder" (a repurposed old coffee grinder) and finally using our mini-prep to blend together everything from the orange rind to the rosemary and the olive oil to the ketchup.  

next it was time to spatchcock our chicken and slather with sauce.  we used a technique my dad applies to his bbq ribs and i'd never thought of applying to chicken-- just a slow cook for an hour or so in the oven which cooked the meat tenderly then we were able to throw the chicken on the grill for some searing and literal flaming of the sauce.

we reduced the sauce and then michael expertly used some rosemary to baste more sauce on our bird.  while grilling i cooked up some quick harvest grains with some dried fruit, pistachios and blood orange EVOO and plated up with the rest of our salad greens, feta and more EVOO and balsamic.  while the chicken legs and thighs were much more aesthetically appealing (gorgeous grill marks and a kind of medieval-times appearance which owen thought his dinosaur carnivores would love!) the succulent (yes, i must say succulent here) chicken breasts were by far tastier and the "prize" of this dish.  overall: delish!

so, mission accomplished: we successfully finished off the last of the csa basket and i'm happy to report that despite the red curry setback (shrimp paste? whither shrimp paste?) we were able to enjoy a week of produce-centered meals.  tonight we will use the last of the heirloom tomatoes in our turkey burgers tonight (making the good food recipe an official "regular" in our rotation) and look forward to a new bountiful basket on wedensday.  

now i must go and find a suitable place in my dissertation to incorporate the word spatchcocked (it does seem ripe for a footnote, no? or perhaps the act of writing is a kind of spatchcocking as in def. no. 3).