Low and slow cooked farm-raised chicken from the Big Green Egg.
I cut the backbone out of this 8-lb. bird and dusted the skin with a homemade rub made of mostly brown sugar. The procedure is called "spatchcocking" and helps the bird cook more quickly and evenly. This isn't a full "butterfly" since I didn't break the keel bone (or remove it) so it would lie flat. The backbone and wing tips were saved and frozen for making stock later.
I preheated the grill to 225f and put the chicken and a squash over direct heat for 2 1/2 hours.
A temperature probe in the breast let me know when it was 161f, I coated it with homemade BBQ sauce, then I removed the bird. The thighs registered 174f.
Looks good to me!
After resting for 20 minutes under foil and a heavy towel, the breast is still hot and moist.
Legs are also perfect; the pink coloring of the meat near the skin is from the smoke.
Just a little additional BBQ sauce brings it all together (KC Masterpiece - I ran out of homemade sauce) and it's complete! The recipe for both the rub and my own sauce will appear in tomorrow's post.
The squash wasn't quite done after 2 1/2 hours, so I cut it into pieces and microwaved it on high for two minutes to finish cooking.
