BBQ Chicken and salad
This is a take on a humble BBQ chicken which is such a simple and wonderfully tasty meal. I add a salad and some grilled tortillas to balance it. It’s definitely worth a try as cooking a whole chicken on the BBQ is not only easy, it adds lots of flavour and saves on some washing up.
For this meal I use a whole chicken that has been cut and butterflied, and then marinated. You can buy them from butchers pre-packaged, or a good butcher will cut one for you and then you can add any marinade you like or keep it plain.
Cooking
To cook, fire up the BBQ and chuck the chicken straight on (ugly side down). If you have a grill part, use it as you can get more flavour, but be careful of burning. Cook for a few minutes and then turn over and take a bit more care with the skin side as it can stick and the chicken can fall apart.
Once you have a nice colour on the skin side (few minutes) put the chicken up on the heat rack and turn down the heat. Aim for about 150 degrees if you have a temperature gauge. Cook for about 30-40 minutes depending on the size of the bird. Turn the chicken a few times during this period and watch for flames. Just, check if it’s cooked with a knife in the thicker part of the leg region.
Although this meal is called BBQ chicken, you don’t actually need to do it on the BBQ. You can just use an oven if you don’t have one. Just use the grill element for a few minutes to get the color on both sides, then turn down to about 150 degrees and cook for 30-40 minutes.
Accompaniments
To accompany the chicken is a salad and some grilled tortillas which you can also do on the BBQ, or open flame if you have a gas cooktop (even in a very hot frypan is fine). The grilling takes the rawness out of the tortilla and adds lots of flavour. Just place the tortilla over the heat for 1 or 2 minutes, and then turn over when it starts to change colour.
The salad is just a basic salad with haloumi and sunflower seeds which is along the lines of what I blogged about here.
Enjoy
This meal is very healthy, and really tasty. We have lots of salad, a moderate serve of chicken each, and a tortilla each. This means for a family of four, one chicken feeds us all with leftovers. We use the leftover chicken for school lunches. If you have a bigger family – just buy another chicken – too easy!
