Grilling and cold beer go hand in hand. It’s the perfect focal point for a casual summer barbecue or a pick-me-up during the winter months. The Weber Spirit grill is the perfect size for the wife and me and always gets the job done. When you throw in a very nice rotisserie attachment from the parents, you are in business. I had my eye on cooking a whole chicken for the first ‘go round’.
If you haven’t had air-chilled chicken you are missing out. I will never purchase chicken, either whole or pieces, that aren’t air-chilled. Air-chilling doesn’t dilute the poultry like a standard freeze, which can pump in around 30% more water weight to the end product. If you want more bang for your buck, go with the air chilled. I digress. For this recipe I went with a 4.5 pound Bells & Evans whole air-chilled bird.
To start, brine the chicken in half a cup of brown sugar and 3/4 a cup of sea salt. Cover with enough water to submerge completely, and let it do its thing for about 5 hours in the fridge. This will yield an extremely juicy and succulent bird. This step could be skipped but it is not advised.
After the bird has sat in the brining liquid for about 5 hours, remove and run under cold water to remove any lingering salt/sugar remnants. Skipping this step could result in an overly seasoned piece of meat.
Next up is the filling for the bird, which will be very simple, but pungent enough to permeate through the meat. This will be the second big level in the flavor profile so make it a good one. Here is the simple filling that I put together. If you are not a huge cilantro fan you can sub in parsley, oregano, rosemary, etc… just make sure it is fresh.
Filling:
3/4 cup of diced red onion
2 tablespoons of minced garlic
1/2 cup of chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon of cumin
salt
pepper
Be careful when stuffing the bird, but make sure to get under the skin around the breast meat and stuff that cavity. This will ensure a distribution of flavor around the whole bird.
Tie up the bird with butchers twine and you are off to the rotisserie! If you haven’t already, now is the time to crack open a beer.
I had the Spirit sitting at around 350 degrees. Removing the grill grates and placing a cooking sheet right on the heating elements will help catch any liquid from the cooking process and eliminate any flare ups. For a 4.5 pound bird, it will take around an hour and a half till the juices run clear.
For basting, I mixed up a simple vinegar based glaze to paint on the chicken while it was spinning.
Vinegar Based BBQ Glaze:
1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice (or lime, had lemon on hand)
2 tablespoons of honey
1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup of EVOO
teaspoon of ground cumin
teaspoon of worchistire sauce
tablespoon of dijon mustard
ghost pepper extract for a little kick
Heat over medium low heat until it reduces into a nice sauce (about 15 minutes). Jar it up and save for the grill. This can be done a couple days before, if desired.
Any store bought BBQ sauce would also work here, either vinegar or tomato based would be excellent. This will be basted on the bird during grilling time for another layer of flavor.
After about an hour and a half, I carefully pulled the rotisserie off the grill and let the bird rest for 15 minutes to ensure the juices distributed evenly throughout.
And boy was this guy juicy! We paired it with the wife’s famous sweet potato hash and we were in business. A super nice west coast IPA goes perfect with the succulent chicken.
Cheers!
bitesnpints 