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Have you cooked chicken and been disappointed with rubbery skin? Have you tried hacks and tricks like using baking soda on the chicken to get that crispy result? What if I told you there was a surefire way to get crispy skin every time?! Well, you have come to the right place as I walk you through my method to get the crispiest chicken skin on your Big Green Egg every time. Now sit back, grab an ice cold PBR, and enjoy this post for Crispy Spatchcock Chicken on the Big Green Egg.
NOTE: Check out my Smoked Spatchcock Chicken Recipe
Crispy Spatchcock Chicken on the Big Green Egg
For this post I cooked two chickens side by side to test two different methods to get the skin crispy. I will skip to the end and tell you the dry brined bird produced superior results. With that said let’s get started!
First, spatchcock the chicken by removing the backbone. To do this, take a sharp knife and cut along each side of the chicken’s backbone.
Once the backbone has been removed, flip the bird over, and press down breaking the breast plate. This will get the bird to lay completely flat.
For the dry brined chicken, sprinkle kosher salt all over the surface of the chicken’s skin. Salting the skin this way helps to denature the bird but it also pulls out all the moisture thus drying the skin. Once the skin side has been salted, place on a wire rack on top of a baking sheet, then in to the fridge (uncovered) overnight.
24 hours later remove the bird from your refrigerator. You will notice the skin is dark yellow and very dry. This is what you want and the SECRET to crispy skin.
Apply a little hot sauce to each side of the bird as a binder, then sprinkle generously with paprika, salt and black pepper. You can also use your favorite BBQ rub too.
Crispy Spatchcock Chicken on the Big Green Egg
Setup your Big Green Egg for indirect cooking, with one lump of smoking wood (I used hickory), and preheat to 350°.
Once the Big Green Egg is set and you see clean smoke, place the chicken inside. I am using the EGGspander
which raises the cooking surface to the felt line. I find that cooking the bird higher in the dome helps with crispy skin.
Leave the bird undisturbed in the Big Green Egg for an hour before checking. At that point you should see beautiful color forming on the chicken and when you touch the surface, crispy skin! At the 1 hour 20 minute mark the chicken probed at 165° in the breast (using my ThermoPop) which means it is done.
Comparing the 2 chickens, the dry brined bird was far and above crispier than its counterpart. Time to carve up and serve with some of my homemade Spicy Alabama White BBQ Sauce.
Enjoy this recipe and technique everyone… well worth the prep and effort!
Crispy Spatchcock Chicken on the Big Green Egg
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken, 4-5 lbs
- 1 Tbs Kosher Salt
- 1 Tsp hot sauce
- 2 Tbs of your favorite BBQ Rub, or my mix of salt, pepper, paprika
Instructions
- The day before you plan to cook, take the chicken out of the packaging
- Wipe down the bird with paper towels to dry skin off
- Remove the backbone and press down to break the breast plate
- Lay the chicken flat on a wire rack on top of a baking sheet
- Salt the skin of the chicken
- Place in the refrigerator uncovered overnight
- The next day preheat your Big Green Egg to 350° using an indirect setup
- Use 1 chunk of smoking wood
- Take the chicken out of the fridge and slather with a little hot sauce then apply rub
- Place the bird in to the Big Green Egg snd let cook for 1 hour 20 minutes
- When temp probe measures 165° in the breast it is time to pull
- Rest 5 minutes, carve, and enjoy
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Just fixed this spatchcock chicken recipe for the second time. Turned out amazing again. Won’t fix chicken any other way. I used smoked paprika this time for a little extra smoky flavor with hickory wood. For those not so inclined to use a knife for the spatchcocking, use a strong scissors like I did, works well enough. Anyone who makes this recipe and does not use the Alabama white sauce, shame on you. Perfect compliment to poultry or pork!
Thanks for taking the time to leave such a kind note 🙏
Did two chickens yesterday using this recipe for Sunday dinner for my daughter and her family (two kids). It was the best chicken ever and my grand daughter declared me “the best chef” and all loved the white sauce.. this for sure will be in the rotation for a long time!
Hanks for posting Bill!