BROILED, BUTTERFLIED CHICKEN
Instructions:
- 1 1/2 teaspoons black peppercorns
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 lemon, zested
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Onions, carrots and celery cut into 3 to 4−inch pieces
- 3 to 4−pound broiler/fryer chicken
- 1 cup red wine
- 8 ounces chicken stock
- 2 to 3 sprigs thyme
- Canola oil
- Position the oven rack 8 inches from the flame/coil and turn broiler to high.
- Crack peppercorns with a mortar and pestle until coarsely ground. Add garlic and salt and work well.
- Add lemon zest and work just until you can smell lemon.
- Add just enough oil to form a paste.
- Check out your refrigerator for onions, carrots and celery that are a little past their prime. Cut vegetables into pieces and place in a deep roasting pan.
- Place chicken on a plastic cutting board breast−side down. Using kitchen shears, cut ribs down one side of back bone and then the other and remove.
- Open chicken like a book and remove the keel bone separating the breast halves by slicing through the thin membrane covering it, then by placing two fingers underneath the bone and levering it out.
- Turn chicken breast−side up and spread out like a butterfly by pressing down on the breast and pulling the legs towards you.
- Loosen the skin at the neck and the edges of the thighs. Evenly distribute the garlic mixture under the skin, saving 2 teaspoons for the jus.
- Drizzle the skin with oil and rub in, being sure to cover the bird evenly. Drizzle oil on bone side of chicken as well.
- Arrange bird in roasting pan, breast up, atop vegetables.
- Place pan in oven being sure to leave the oven door ajar. Check bird in 10 minutes.
- If the skin is a dark mahogany, hold the drumstick ends with paper towels and flip bone−side up. Cook 12 to 15 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. Juices must run clear.
- Remove and place chicken into a deep bowl and cover loosely with foil.
- Tilt pan so that any fat will pool at corner. Siphon this off with a bulb baster. (This fat is great in vinaigrettes).
- Set pan over 2 burners set on high. Deglaze pan with a few shots of red wine and scrape brown bits from bottom using a carrot chunk held with tongs.
- Add chicken stock, thyme, the remaining garlic paste and reduce briefly to make a jus.
- Strain out vegetables and discard.
- Slice chicken onto plates or serve in quarters. Sauce lightly with jus and serve.
- Yield: 4 to 6 servings