Fire-Cooked Spatchcock Chicken with Lemon, Marjoram, Black Pepper & Garlic

Nigel Barden
Jul 24
2 min read

from Pipers Farm the Sustainable Meat Book (Kyle Books)

Photography: Matt Austin

Cooking over fire is all about managing heat. There is a connection between the cook and the flames that requires you to use all your senses in coaxing your ingredients along, moving from direct heat when you want a little char flavour, to indirect to avoid burning your ingredients to a crisp. It is for this reason we love cooking over fire, it reconnects us in a mindful way to our basic human instincts.

Ingredients

1 free-range chicken, weighing about 1.2– 1.5kg (2lb 10oz–3lb 5oz)

a handful of marjoram leaves

25g (1oz) grass-fed butter, softened

zest of 1 lemon

1 garlic clove, finely grated

a selection of other fresh green herbs, for cooking

pure sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Remove the chicken from the fridge at least 2–3 hours before you intend to cook it.

When you are ready to cook, place the chicken breast-side down on a chopping board. Using a pair of kitchen scissors, cut down each side of the backbone and remove it. Open the bird out so it’s nice and flat – it’ll cook much more evenly this way.

Chop the marjoram relatively finely and place in a bowl with the butter, lemon zest, garlic, a good pinch of salt and plenty of black pepper. Rub the bird all over with the soft herby butter and, if you can, try and get some under the skin of the breast. Sprinkle the whole bird with a little more salt and pepper.

Light your barbecue. When the flames have burned back and you have a good bed of medium–hot coals, it’s time to cook the chicken.

Place the chicken on the barbecue, cut-side down, breast-side up, scatter over half the additional herbs and cook gently for about 45–50 minutes. Make sure the heat isn’t too fierce or you’ll burn the chicken before it’s cooked through. You may need to move the embers of the barbecue around or raise/lower the height of the grill to find the optimum heat for this kind of gentle cooking.

Once you’ve cooked the first side, carefully turn the chicken over, scatter over the remaining herbs and grill on the breast side for a further 20–30 minutes or until the juices run clear and the bird is cooked through.