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Split chicken shows old trends can be the best

Photo by MICHELLE BAKER

A flat chicken that can be cooked to perfection in 30 to 45 minutes with very little interaction.

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By GREG and MICHELLE BAKER

Tribune correspondents

Published: July 16, 2009

In the American food world, what's old is new. The hottest trends are, in reality, ways that things were done for centuries prior to the industrial age.

Eating local and organic produce was called "eating" before global transportation and modern refrigeration. Natural meat products are based on the antiquated idea that cows should eat grass, pigs might forage for roots and nuts, and chickens don't naturally live in cages stacked 10 high and dine on pellets.

Charcuterie was a means of preserving meats so they would last long enough for people to be able to eat the whole animal. That gave us hams and sausages and other lovely bits — because as magical as a pig is, you can't walk up to one and cut bacon off of it one day and pork chops the next. The pig would get cranky.

A hot topic from about this time last year was a simple means of roasting chicken quickly, called spatchcocking. While we certainly aren't the first to write about this, we have been eating quite a bit of it lately.

Looking at the past and how cooking methods evolved, spatchcocking was a pretty obvious attempt at saving time and sanity. The chicken is split and flattened, and grilled whole. Prior to this method, it's safe to assume that the preferred roasting technique was to put it on a stick over a fire.

Hand-turning a rotisserie over a bed of coals is an exercise in slow torture, not to mention a dicey proposition if you're easily distracted. One ill-timed moment of chasing something shiny and your roasted chicken is a hunk of carbon. As you can see, a flat chicken that can be cooked to perfection in 30 to 45 minutes with very little interaction is a far preferable approach to achieve a similar goal.

Get in on the nothing new under the sun trend this weekend: Fire up the grill, get primitive, and spatchcock some fowl. Your stomach will thank you.

Visit the Sherpas at www.cooksncompany.com and www.culinarysherpas.com.

ANCHO CHILE AND SPICE-RUBBED GRILLED WHOLE CHICKEN

1 whole chicken

1 ancho chile

1 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

Sea or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Prepare the chicken for grilling by removing the backbone with a knife or poultry shears (or have your butcher do this), tucking the thin part of the wings behind the thicker parts, and spreading the chicken flat. Tie the legs together with kitchen twine or a silicone rubber band to help keep the chicken flat while cooking.

Place the ancho chile, cloves, cumin and coriander in a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle and grind into a powder. Rub the chicken well on all sides with the spice mix and season well with salt and pepper.

Heat and lightly oil the grill and place the chicken, skin side down, on the hottest part of the grill for 4 to 5 minutes to sear the skin.

Turn the chicken over and sear the other side.

Move to a cooler spot of the grill and allow the chicken to cook slowly until the temperature of the thickest part of the leg reaches 150 degrees (about 30 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken). Move the chicken to the hottest part of the grill and turn skin side down for 4-5 minutes, to crisp the skin. Remove the chicken from the grill and let rest for 10 minutes before carving.

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