Spanish lemon and fresh herb spatchcock chicken

This is the perfect dish for feeding friends and family, it works well in the oven but comes into a life of its own when cooked over wood or coals. The marinade is best started the day before but you can get some great flavour from 3-4 hours of marinating.

spatchcocking is simply taking the backbone out of the chicken and pressing it down, this allows the chicken to cook evenly and faster allowing less time on the bbq and more time with friends and family.

I haven’t put up a tutorial for spatchcocking yet but it is as easy as pie and I have provided a link below where you can find simple instructions from Martha Stuart until our pig and pilgrim bbq series is up for summer.

https://www.marthastewart.com/891288/how-spatchcock-chicken?slide=fd0f674a-e9bd-41e4-a73d-be0ee05b9ce2#fd0f674a-e9bd-41e4-a73d-be0ee05b9ce2

here is the recipe

ingredients:

1 whole chicken- prepared as a spatchcock

1 tsp smoked sweet paprika

1/2 a lemon cut into 3

1 cup of fresh oregano leaves (1/2 tsp if using dry) roughly chopped

1 cup of fresh parsley leaves roughly chopped

1/2 a cup of fresh tarragon leaves roughly chopped

4 garlic cloves roughly chopped

1 cup of olive oil

3 tsp salt

Method:

1. Mix everything but the chicken in an extra large zip lock bag big enough to fit the chicken. Squeezing it all together releasing the juice from the lemon and let the ingredients marry together.

2. Add your chicken to the bag making sure it is completely covered by the marinade and leave it in the fridge over night or for at least 3 hours.

3. Let the chicken come to room temperature before you put it on the bbq on medium-high heat. the chicken is ready when the juices run clear from the thigh and the meat starts to pull away from the sides.

nb. If you are cooking in the oven you will want to place the chicken in a preheated 180c oven for 40min-60min or until the chicken is cooked.