Page 35 - Barbecue Chicken Made Easy

Burgers and steaks are easy to cook. They are flat on top and bottom, solid in the center, and pretty uniform in thickness. This allows heat to enter the meat evenly and steadily. But whole birds are fleshy tubes, hollow inside, and they have thick parts (breasts), medium thick parts (thighs and drumsticks), and thin parts (wings). They also have all sorts of bones, some thick (leg bones), and some very thin (rib bones). Then there is the skin, whose chemistry is significantly different than the flesh, but it is all on one side.
A good solution is to spatchcock the bird. This is a giggle-inducing word for cutting it from tail to neck so you can open the bird up and brown the skin side as well as the cavity side. Because hot air circulates on all sides, a spatchcocked bird cooks faster and loses less moisture. It also looks impressive, and it is just plain fun to say “spatchcock.”