Butterflied & Kickin Chicken with an Attitude / Cobb Grill

Did this cook yesterday on the little Cobb Grill and it came out very well. 

I started with a chicken that weighed a little over four pounds, a box of that great pre-cooked bacon, some jalapeno pepper slices, and my favorite chicken rub. 

I spatchcocked the chicken by cutting the backbone out and then I trimmed off the two wing tips and then broke the keel bone so it would lay flat on the grill. Next step was to give it a good coat of rub on both sides and it was ready for the grill. 

I fired the grill up using 13 all hardwood briquets and I made up a tinfoil pouch of JD chips for my smoke wood and just put them right on top of my ashed over briquets. Loaded the chicken and ran the cooker at about 275-320 degrees measured on the cooking grid. The cook took 55minutes to get my chicken to an internal of 170 degrees which was my finish temperature for this cook. 

The chicken just before it came off of the grill. It was cooked skin side down thru out the whole cook to be sure that the skin held all the wonderful juices, moisture, flavor, and goodness inside the meat and not run out on the fire if I would have turned it to skin side up at any time during the cook. 

I let the chicken cool down for about 10 minutes and then I removed the skin for my next step in this process. I also pulled and chopped up my chicken at this time. 

I chopped up the chicken skin into smaller pieces, did the same with my pre-cooked bacon, and then chopped up my jalopeno slices into smaller pieces. 

I added a little oil to my Cobb frying pan and put it back on my grill and loaded my chicken skin and fried it until it was slightly crispy. 

Next up was to add both the bacon and jalapeno peppers to the pan with the fried chicken skin and cook them a few minutes to get them as done as I wanted for my treat. 

Poured my hot goodies right on top of my pulled chicken and then mixed it up for my sandwiches. 

I made up a slider with my Kicked up chicken and added some veggies and a bowl of slaw and a big dip of pit beans and had a fine meal with my treat. The Bride thought it was a little too hot to suit her but she did eat most of her sandwich anyway. 

Spinnin & Kickin Chicken / Green Mountain Grill

This is my first cook in my GMG Daniel Boone cooker using a couple of my just completed  rotisserie setups. I picked a nice 22 degree day here in Central Indiana.



Wife had to shovel a fresh 2” snow to get the cooker to my cooking patio.

I started with two rather large whole fryers which weighed about 5-1/2 pounds each and after washing them out, I added a light sprinkle of my low carb rub. 



I placed the two whole chickens in my EZ-Que 6” cradle and got them locked down.



Brought the cooker up to 325 degrees and loaded the cradle into the cooker and installed the rotisserie motor. I run about 40 minutes and then started mopping the two chickens. 



For the mop or marinade, I was using the “Roadside Chicken Recipe” and after the first mop, I mopped about every 10 minutes until the chicken was done. 



The two chickens looked good coming off the cooker.

Next step was to slab a coupe of big baker potatoes with a knife. I rubbed these with peanut oil, added some garlic salt and then cracked on some fresh black pepper. I then sprinkled on some Italian spices and placed them in my favorite standard rotisserie basket setup and got them locked down. 



I installed this rotisserie setup into the cooker and raised the temp up to 350 degrees. 



As soon as the potatoes start to brown up, I start spraying them with some canned butter spray about every 10-15 minutes until done.



I cut one of the chickens in half and plated it with the slab potatoes and it was ready to go to the table. 



With a few veggies and some cheese, this made a fine very tasty meal.

I removed the skin from the balance of the chicken as it will be used for my “Kicked Up” pulled chicken recipe. Next step was to pull the chicken. I did set aside about 1/2 pound of the pulled chicken for some chicken salad.



I start the Kicked Up chicken recipe by cutting a full pound of bacon into 3/4” pieces and   frying it up in an iron skillet. I then drain the bacon  onto paper towels. Next step is to cut all the skin into small pieces and place it into the hot bacon grease. I then add about a cup of chopped up Jalapeno peppers to the skillet. I cook this a few short minutes and then pour the contents of skin and peppers thru a strainer to remove the bacon fat. I then add my fried and chopped up bacon to the strainer, stir it up and add it to my meat. 



I mix it it well and it is ready to go for many different treats. 



Now, that is chicken with an attitude! We usually freeze some of this when we have extra. 



A couple of my “Kicked Up” pulled chicken slyders.

I think I can call my rotisserie setup for this new cooker a success.

Butterflied and Pulled Extra Juicy Chicken / Weber Kettle

This is a treat that we like to do often as it is simple and always produces great results. We plan to use this chicken as pulled chicken and we want the finished chicken just dripping wet with as much retained juice as possible. Don't want to spill any of that goodness down on the fire. Must be retained inside the chicken. Got That!!!



Ok, I had the Char-Broil cast iron grid in the cooker so I decided to use it and set the fire up for an indirect cook with a drip pan in the middle of the kettle.



Loaded some Ozark Oak lump into the baskets on each side of my cooking area and lit it off.



This is a fresh Bell & Evans whole chicken that hasn't been injected with a lot of salt water and seaweed and with full coverage perfect skin. We need perfect skin for this treat as the secret to this cook is in the skin.



Turn that chicken over and cut out the back bone. Then break the breast bone so it will lay flat on the plate. I added some Smokin' Guns rub to this back side of the chicken and then turned it over.



Sprinkled on more rub to the skin side and it is ready for the cooker. NOW, from this point forward, this chicken will NEVER be with the skin up during the cook. It will not be turned over again, period. SKIN SIDE DOWN.



I carefully arrange the chicken on the grid to be sure the skin has everything covered so none of the juice can get out of the meat.



During the cook, there will be puddles of juice on top on the chicken as all that great skin is holding all this juicy goodness inside the chicken. SKIN SIDE DOWN, use that lousy old chicken skin to your advantage!



I did a couple burgers too and those Char-Broil grids left some nice marks on the meat.



Late into the cook, I still had some puddles of juice on top of the chicken. I remove the chicken at about 165 internal measured with a Thermopen.

I take the chicken off keeping it skin side down being very careful not to spill any remaining juice. It is placed on a plate skin side down for about an hour to let it cool and absorb the juice back into the meat.



After cooling and turning over to skin side up, it still leaks some of that juicy goodness on my plate. This is one juicy chicken. Can you imagine, non-injected, non brined, non pumped in any way.....and all that goodness!



I then strip all the skin off of the chicken. Next step is to pull the chicken and place it into a bowl.



I chop up the chicken skin into little pieces, chop up about 3-4 pieces of bacon and chop up about 2 fresh Jalapeno or hot banana peppers for this treat.



This goes into a skillet with about 2 tablespoons of peanut oil and I fry this mixture up until about crisp.



I strain the grease out and add the mixture into my pulled chicken.



Now, this is some good stuff!



Makes a nice juicy chicken sandwich. YUM

Butterflied Chicken / Pulled Chicken

Butterflied chicken or as it is sometimes called, spatchcock chicken, is a great treat on a cooker, grill, or smoker. It is easy to do and can be cooked at about any temp that you can come up with on your cooker. I prefer it cooked at a higher temp at around 350 degrees if it is the only thing I am running on my smoker/cooker at the time. Other than cooking a chicken whole in a Weber Kettle Rotisserie setup, I feel that this is the second best way to cook a whole chicken on an outside cooker.

To prep the butterflied chicken, place the whole chicken breast side down on your cutting board and using poultry shears or a very good knife, cut the backbone out of the chicken. Turn it over and spread it out and then press down on the chicken hard enough to break the breast bone and you now have it.



The chicken is now ready for your rub and I prefer something like Smokin' Guns Hot as I feel it is a great rub for all chicken.



This picture shows three butterflied chickens ready for the cooker.

I do this treat on most of my cookers and will show some pictures of this cook in process on the different cookers.



This is 3 butterflied chickens on my pellet cooker.



This picture shows 2 butterflied chickens on my contraption in my large BGE cooker.



This is a butterflied chicken in my small Egg on my raised grid setup.



Chicken just going on my Backwoods Party smoker.

I have some pictures of this wonderful treat just coming out of the cookers.



This chicken is out of one of my Backwoods cookers.



These two chickens are coming out of my Backwoods Party cooker.



This butterflied chicken is just coming off of my "Old School" Fast Eddy Pellet Cooker.



These are two more butterflied chickens off of my pellet cooker.



Again, one more chicken along with some baked potatoes just coming off the pellet cooker.

I use several different methods for finishing and glazing this chicken on the cookers and that is why the pictures show the different results in my cooks.



There are a lot of ways to present a butterflied whole chicken and I think this is one of the best! I like to cut it up at the table with a good knife and then serve it right off the plate.

Pulled Chicken is another great way to use this meat. Must be a hundreds of ways to prepare and serve this treat after pulling and we use several of them and all are very good. Wife loves chicken salad and if I don't watch her, all of the chicken I cook will end up in this dish. Once she gets it chopped up and made into her chicken salad, she will use it for several treats. I like it fixed as barbecued chicken and on a hoogie roll with some hot sauce. I also like it in some Mexican type of dishes and I also use it for some stir fried recipes. It's great about any way you prepare it.



This is a bowl of pulled chicken from two butterflied whole chickens. We will usually make enough to put up a bag or two for the freezer when we cook this meat as we do use it often for several recipes.

Now, for the folks that want to kick this up to the next level, I'll give you my top secret recipe and method that will make this treat something that you might never forget.

To prep your pulled chicken for this, you first need to pull all the skin off of the butterflied chicken and put it aside. Then go ahead and pull the chicken into a bowl.



Put all the chicken skin on a cutting board and chop it up into small pieces and place it into a skillet that has a tablespoon or two of peanut oil in the bottom and then add about 3 cut up pieces of bacon per whole chicken. Now, for the folks that are the lovers of the pod, cut up about two jalapeno peppers per chicken and place them in the skillet and cook this until it is kinda crispy but not overdone.



Strain the grease out of this mixture.



Pour it over your pulled chicken.



Mix it up and you really have something that is more than good.



I like to take a hoogie roll and lay it out flat on the plate. Run a couple of beads of mayo on one side of the bun, then add some lettuce, some tomatoes, and some onions. I then place some of my pulled chicken on the other side and fold it up and eat this great sandwich.



Wife likes to make some of the pulled chicken into chicken salad and then use a whole wheat tortilla to make her chicken salad rollups. She will also stuff a Pita Pocket with some pulled barbecued chicken as a second choice. Both are very good.



Another great way to use the pulled chicken is in what I call a Mexican rollup. I start by chopping up some of the pulled chicken and then mixing the meat in a bowl with some taco sauce. I then put some of it down on a whole wheat tortilla.



I then add some finely chopped lettuce, tomato, and onions and then some sharp shreaded cheddar cheese on it. I will then dribble on some more taco sauce on the top before I roll it up.



Put the rollup in the nuker just long enough to heat it up and melt the cheese.



I will then cut it into two pieces, add some sour cream, and serve it like you see in the picture.



A great meal!



Wife will sometimes pile on some more of the veggies and sour cream on the top of her rollup and eat it that way. Either way, it is a wonderful treat.