Mexican-Style Butterflied Chicken

Whole leg of a Mexican-Style Butterflied Chicken served with warm tortillas and fresh salsa

This chicken recipe has been in my queue of things to try for about 2 years. It's even showed up on the food plan a couple of times but for one reason or another, primarily because I don't have an outdoor grill, it didn't go through. Now that I've flipped through the magazine the recipe showed up in originally, I've realized that that this is a Chef Bruce Aidells recipe! Aidells rules when it comes to meat, there's no wiggle room on this chicken -- I'm going to be rockin' the broiler.

Mexican-Style Butterflied Chicken

adapted from Cooking Club of America
click for the printable

2 tbsp finely chopped onion

1 1/2 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp lime juice
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
1 1/2 tsp ground New Mexico chiles or Hungarian paprika*
1 tsp coarse salt
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 (3-4lb) whole chicken
8 lime wedges

Combine all ingredients except oil, chicken and limes in small bowl. Stir in 1 tablespoon of the oil to form wet paste.


Place chicken, breast-side down, on cutting board. With sharp kitchen scissors, cut down one side of backbone, cutting through rib cage. Cut down other side of back bone; remove and discard backbone.

I achieved this by grabbing the tail (that knob between the legs) and cutting as close to the spine as possible. In the third photo above, I placed the spine in the splayed-open cavity to illustrate how narrow it actually is. The closer you are to the spine when cutting, the less difficult it is to remove. Stray too wide and you'll run into thigh bones and and wing bones, which, unless you have the most bitchin' scissors known to kitchens and Superman strength, you will not be able to cut through.

Turn chicken breast-side up; flatten with heel of your hand. Trim off excess neck skin.

Loosen skin over each breast by lifting the skin at the neck and with a finger, piercing the membrane between flesh and skin. With a spoon, scoop marinade paste onto the breasts under the skins. Press the skin such that the paste covers each breast completely.

Generously rub marinade over both sides of chicken, transfer chicken to non-reactive dish. Cover and refrigerate 8 to 24 hours.

I rubbed the paste over the breast-side of the bird being sure to rub into the crevices (between legs and breasts as well as in the "armpits", flipped it into a 9x13" glass baking dish, then rubbed remaining paste over the bony interior.

Place broiler rack and pan on the lowest rung, furthest from heat (I have three options, high, middle and low). Heat broiler.

Broil chicken with skin-side up until skin begins to color, about 3 minutes; cover breasts with foil to prevent burning and broil an additional 4 minutes.

Remove foil; flip chicken so skin-side is down. Broil 9 minutes.

Flip chicken to skin-side up, cover with foil and return to broiler another 15 minutes to cook through.

Remove chicken; cover loosely with foil. Let stand 10 minutes before carving; serve with lime wedges.


Oh yeah, the flavors were fabulous, the chicken tender and juicy. A total of 31 minutes in the broiler plus 10 minutes to stand is my speed of a whole chicken -- quick. The leg I ate day one was simply fantastic, crispy skin, juicy flesh...mmm! Day 2, I reheated a breast and found that the amount of marinade under the skin was something to be desired. I could've cut back on how much I shoved in there. Still, certainly worth doing again!

I don't know that I could tell that Hungarian paprika was used. I'll have to try it in a recipe where it is a predominant factor rather than one of many to see what I really think of the taste.

Cost:

• chicken: $5.54
• seasonings: $1, SWAG
• lime: $0.18

Total: $6.72 or $1.68 for each of four servings.

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