BBQ/ROASTED BONED WHOLE CHICKEN

BBQ/Roasted Boned Whole Chicken image

Our family loves roasted chicken, but its frequently difficult to get a "sell" on the legs and wings, as there is too much bone in there to make it the "easy eating" that breast meat represents. The solution came in learning to bone out the bird; the bonus came in seasoning and cooking method. I learned this from a bona fide professional chef at an adult education evening a few years back; he was a meat cutter as well as a Chef, and showed us that, given a really good, sharp boning knife, this is pretty simple to do.

Provided by John DOH

Categories Poultry

Time 50m

Yield 6-8 serving(s)

Number Of Ingredients 2

Ingredients

1 (5 lb) whole roasting chickens
Lawry's Seasoned Salt

Steps:

This is easiest to do if the chicken has been allowed to warm to near room temperature.
Put chicken on counter, breast side down.
With knife or shears, cut away the wings, saving for stock.
Make an incision in the carcass to expose the drumlet and blade bone on one side, carefully cutting away the meat and extracting the bones, again saving for stock. Repeat for the opposite side.
(The hard part is now over!).
Slit the skin down the backbones, and very carefully cut out the "oysters" along the back, and slowly but carefully cutting, strip the breast and skin from the ribs and carcass to the sternum, then repeat for the opposite side, ensuring the skin remains intact.
The thigh joints should now be exposed, so carefully cut through the joint, and slit through the inside of the thigh to expose and remove the joint, ensuring the skin stays in place to hold the meat together.
Throw the thigh bone into the "stock" pile, and repeat the process with the drumstick, and returning to the opposite side to repeat the process.
Very carefully peel the skin and meat from the sternum, severing the wishbone connections, then carefully extracting the wishbone from the meat.
(The first time you try this takes 30-40 minutes, you can bring it down to 15 minutes with practice!).
You should now have a complete chicken, less wings, held together by its skin, and a pile of cuts that will make an excellent stock.
The chicken meat will be fully exposed, and the skin more or less fully attached, and the fats enclosed between meat and skin.
You may now season the meat from both sides, I personally use Lawry's seasoning salt, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika and so on --.
The easiest way to proceed from here is to lay the meat out in a "seafood" wire basket to keep it neatly spread out, and then grill it briefly on the BBQ (losing the juices, but you can add smoke with wood chips) flipping the rack after about 7 minutes, or cooking it over a large roasting pan in the oven, capturing the juices for gravy -- note that spread out and thin like this, the cooking time is remarkably brief, and the "double seasoning" adds greatly to the taste and flavour.