Spatchcocked chicken questions

Unknown

Hi all,[p]I did my first spatchcocked chicken last night. I followed The Naked Whiz's recipe for dead-simple spatchcock chicken. When I turned the chicken after the first 20 minutes, the "knee" portion of the chicken was burned. When I took it off, the breast skin was burned as well.
I followed the recipe and did it direct at 350, just a little salt, pepper and paprika on the bird.[p]How can I keep the bird from burning? Maybe using a raised grill, rather than the primary grill?[p]Any help would be appreciated as the bird sans skin was excellent and fairly easy to prepare. I'd like to try again and get better results though.[p]Thanks,
Kevin

Unknown

Kevin Klostermann,[p]Spatchcocked chicken is my favorite and the only thin I do different that what you did is I keep it closer to 320. Ususllt the bottom will butne some, but the breast should not. I turn after 25-30 minutes and it works like a charm.

Spin

Kevin Klostermann,[p]I agree the TomD. Drop the cooking temperature. I like 300°F.[p]Spin

The Naked Whiz

Kevin Klostermann,
Well, if you used the primary grill, you didn't follow my instructions! :-) I'd try raising the grill like I do. If you lower the temp to 300, you'll obviously need to cook it longer. Some folks have said that the skin isn't very nice at lower temps. Don't know....[p]TNW

Spin

The Naked Whiz,[p]Slightly lower cooking temps do tend to require slightly longer cooking times. Longer cooking times with lower temps can produce a better finished skin. Rendering does take time...[p]Spin

Unknown

The Naked Whiz,[p]I don't want to cause any trouble, but I just checked and the recipe in the "submitted recipes" section doesn't mention a raised grill! However, I do remember seeing it in a message or something a while back. I suspected that I should've raised the grill, but I neglected to do it. Anyway, I now know how it's done, so it'll be better next time. Thanks for your response and the reminder to use a raised grill.[p]Happy Thanksgiving and good Q'ing to you,
Kevin

Unknown

Spin and Tom D,[p]Thanks for the help. I remember that The Naked Whiz had mentioned somewhere that he raises his grill to do these at 350. I just neglected to remember it at cook time![p]Now I have to spatchcock at least 2 more birds. 1 to do at
300 on the primary grill and 1 to do at 350 on a raised grill. Again, thanks for the help.[p]Happy Thanksgiving,
Kevin

The Naked Whiz

Kevin Klostermann,
My apologies! I thought you got the recipe from my website which has a photo. At least now we know that the raised grill might be necessary. I just did it to make it easier to access the birds. Thanks for the info![p]TNW

PuppyBreath

don't want to second guess you Kevin but, are you sure the bird was burned... i followed this recipe a couple of weeks ago and nearly died when i lifted the lid and checked the bird... parts of it looked like tar baby...
but
when we sat down to eat it it was not burned??? it was great...
Puppy

Unknown

PuppyBreath,[p]The skin was definitely burned, the meat underneath was quite dark, but was juicy and had a good flavor. I should've used a raised grill. I'll be trying this again
in the near future.[p]Kevin

davidm

Kevin Klostermann,[p]I avoid the problem by not turning the bird at all. I just leave it, skin side up, direct at 325 until it's done. Always works for me...[p]David