Cooking a whole chicken on the barbecue can be a bit tricky but it is much easier if you spatchcock the chicken. This is quite easy and we do this ourselves; cutting out the backbone with poultry shears and then turning over and flattening out by pushing down on the breast. There are plenty of videos online to help, or just ask your butcher to do it, they never mind.
A temperature probe is also an essential piece of kit when barbecuing all meat as its the best way of determing if the meat is cooked underneath any charring. They are relatively inexpensive, but a worthwhile investment. There’s a reason professionals use them and they help remove the risk of being under-done. Cooking over fire (or gas) is inexact and using the probe has meant that any timings are just a guide; sometimes the dish is done early as it’s hotter than last time, or takes more time than planned. The probe can help you get this right.
We served this sesame sticky rice and and a Thai salad.
Wine Suggestion: As it’s summer barbecue time, a good Provençal rosé, the Love by Léoube, was opened to great success. With the thai aromatic flavours and chilli you need to avoid to much tannin especially, but with charry barbecue chicken a bit of body is still needed which these rosés give, despite their light colour and freshness. The hints of gentle strawberry and raspberry flavours really picked up on the mint and lime too.
Barbecued chicken with coconut & soy – serves 4
- 2kg free-range chicken
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 200g tin coconut milk (you can buy little tins or just use half a regular tin and freeze the rest for later)
- 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp soft brown sugar
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- zest and juice of 1 lime
- a few sprigs of mint, leaves chopped
- 2 red chillies, chopped
You need to get your barbecue ready for both direct and indirect cooking (i.e. hot coals on one side only).
Slash the breast and legs of the chicken with a sharp knife.
Rub the chicken with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper.
Lay the chicken on the indirect side of the barbeuce. Put something heavy on top to weight it down, we used a cast-iron frying pan, then shut the lid and leave to cook for 45 minutes. Rotate the chicken a couple of times to make sure it cooks evenly but keep the skin-side up.
Mix the coconut milk, garlic, sugar, soy sauce, fish sauce and lime zest together to make a baste for the chicen.
Once the initial 45 mintues is up, turn the chicken skin-side down and cook for another 10 minutes, with the lid on.
Now move the chicken over the coals to cook over a direct heat and start basting with the coconut mixture. Keep basting and turning for 10 to 15 minutes or until nicely browned and cooked through. A probe should read 74C.
Chop the cooked chicken into large pieces, then squeeze over the lime and scatter over the mint and chilli.
(Recipe inspiration from Foolproof BBQ by Genevieve Taylor, Hardie Grant: Quadrille, 2021.)
Jono & Jules do food & wine 