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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.
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.
How much salt do you recommend for the brine? Your recipe recommends a 1 TBPS of kosher salt, but Basics with Babish covers his completely in salt if you watch his video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABtt5y-maO4&t=431s
Not sure about Babish but I lightly salt just the skin… this is more of a trick to get the skin crispy.
Followed your recipe exactly..skin did not come out crisp.
Sorry brother… it happens
Doing this tomorrow, but I don’t have the Eggspander.
Can I cook this without it?
Yes of course as long as you have the ConvEGGtor you are good to go!
Should the ConvEGGtor legs be up or down?
Up. Standard indirect setup.
Is the point of adding the hot sauce to just be a binder, or to provide flavor? Can I use another binder that won’t ruin the crispy skin? I’m cooking for someone allergic to chili powder and most every type of pepper besides bell peppers. Thanks!
You can use olive oil or even a small amount of yellow mustard. It’s purpose is to bind the seasoning to the skin before cooking.
When cooking do I close the lid?
yes
Chris, this is mostly a general comment but thanks for turning me into a fake pit master.
Well, you are welcome ?
can I do this and NOT let it sit overnight.
Can I do it today, eat it tonight, and still get some crispy skin on my spatchcock chicken?
Give it a shot and report back with results!
It was perfect! I seasoned it and made sure it was super dry. Sat on my kitchen counter for about 2 hours. Then green egg at 350 degrees and the skin was very crispy and delish. Now you know!
Thanks for sharing the results!
Hi Chris, just discovered your blog while snooping to perfect my cold smoked salmon technique.
In this chicken post, you start off saying you are trying 2 chicks. One, dry brined overnight with salt…and the other? I’m guessing just natural!? But did you spatchcock it and just dry it or did you skip all that and just spatchcock and straight to the BGE.
I have been spatchcocking for a while and roast on a Kanka Grill (Kankagrill.com) on open pit fire for a few years. I normally brine my chicks 2-2 1/2 hours (no more!) in buttermilk prior to roasting.
I am wondering if I could combine my method with yours. I’m thinking; salting the skin, dry overnight, buttermilk bath, rinse/pat dry, rub and roast. What would be your thought on this?
Thanks a bunch ??
Dan
Thank you. Will be trying it soon
Hey Dan. The other I just spatchcocked and cooked right away. I’d be interested in seeing the results of the combined method. I love using buttermilk as part of a marinade but am not sure it will produce the crispy skin. Let us know!
Did you use the plate setter for indirect?
Yes
Hey Chris. Thanks for this…
Question – did I miss a step where you removed the salt after taking it out of w fridge?
While my skin was crispy, the meat was WAY too salty…
Thx
Do not wash the salt off as it will defeat the purpose of the dry brine. The only thing I can think of is you may have used too much salt for the dry brine?