Barefoot Bloggers – Butterflied Chicken

This week’s Barefoot Blogger recipe is Butterflied Chicken and was chosen by Stefany of Proceed with Caution.

We eat a lot of chicken at our house so this was a popular dish.  The recipe calls for using  whole chickens, deboned and butterflied.  Since I was under a bit of a time crunch - too much “getting ready for college” going on around here - I just used chicken breasts with the bone and skin.  They worked great and a lot easier!

I also chose to bake the chicken in the oven – about 45 minutes at 350 instead of grilling it as our gas grill cooks a little hot and fast.

The chicken came out nice and moist and I love the crispy skin!  The combination of rosemary and lemon is a favorite of mine.   Thanks Stefany!

Butterflied Chicken

Ina Garten

1/4 cup chopped fresh rosemary leaves, plus 2 sprigs

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 tsp. lemon zest

1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

good olive oil

kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

2 roasting chickens (2 1/2 to 3 lbs. each), deboned and butterflied

1/2 lemon, thinly sliced

Mix the chopped rosemary, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper together in a small bowl to make a paste. Place the chickens on a sheet pan, skin side up, and loosen the skin from the meat with your fingers. Place 1/2 of the paste under the skin of each chicken. Rub any remaining paste on the outside and underside of the chickens.Turn the chicken skin side down and scatter the lemon slices and sprigs of rosemary over each chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Roll each chicken up, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.Heat a grill with coals. Spread the coals out in 1 dense layer and brush the grill with oil. Unroll the chickens, place them on the grill and cook for 12 minutes on each side.