{"id":3815,"date":"2022-05-04T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-04T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesaltedpotato.com\/?p=3815"},"modified":"2022-05-06T11:51:17","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T15:51:17","slug":"spatchcocked-chicken-with-chile-rub-meyer-lemons-and-croutons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesaltedpotato.com\/spatchcocked-chicken-with-chile-rub-meyer-lemons-and-croutons\/","title":{"rendered":"Spatchcocked Chicken with Chile Rub, Meyer Lemons and Croutons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Crisp Chunks of Bread Soak Up the Juices in this Traybake.<\/h2>\n\n

Roasted chickens show up regularly in my kitchen. I have never grown tired of them and I never will. They are pure comfort food and nothing smells better than a chicken roasting away in the oven. I sometimes leave it whole and intact and other times I spatchcock it as I\u2019ve done here. It just depends on my mood. But one thing never changes. Ever since Samin Nosrat published her Buttermilk Brined Roast Chicken in her cookbook Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat<\/em>, I\u2019ve never looked back.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

It doesn\u2019t matter what else I\u2019m adding to the seasoning, I stick to the basics – one chicken in a ziplock bag with 2 cups buttermilk and 2 tablespoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt. Let it sit overnight. I\u2019ve sometimes added aromatics, herbs, and spices to the brine, or just left it as is. It produces a juicy and flavorful bird every time.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

\"Marinating<\/figure>\n\n

For this recipe, I added a dry rub after removing the chicken from the salted buttermilk brine. My son and I put our heads together and came up with a combination of chile powder, paprika, ground celery and cumin seeds, plus a little muscovado sugar, among other things. You\u2019ll notice a couple of unusual ingredients in the rub. The first is anardana seeds. I recently tasted these for the first time and was surprised at their flavor. These are the dried seeds from a pomegranate and are sweet, tart and brightly flavored. I find them delightful. They\u2019re used extensively in Indian and Iranian cuisine, but when my son suggested adding them to this rub, I heartily agreed.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

While the next ingredient isn\u2019t really unusual, I don\u2019t recall seeing it used in this way. We ground up a tablespoon of unsweetened toasted coconut and mixed it into the rub. The slightly sweet, but warm flavor rounded out the flavors of the other spices and I felt the spice blend was now ready to go.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

I love adding pieces of bread to the pan when roasting a chicken. In this case I sat the chicken on top of some of the bread pieces so they would soak up those glorious chicken juices. I then added the rest to the pan halfway through the roasting time, giving them the time they needed to get good and crisp. A few Fresno chiles and some halved Meyer lemons added brightness to the mix.<\/p>\n\n

With a chicken this large – 4 1\/2 to 5 pounds – we eat the dark meat and wings on the first night and are left with the breast meat to enjoy at another time. You will notice I don’t snip off the wing tips as is recommended by many chefs and cooks. Those crispy tips are some of my favorite parts of the chicken to eat. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s better, a bite of the chicken or one of those crispy croutons soaked in the juices from the chicken with a squeeze of roasted Meyer lemon. This meal will always be near the top of my list.\u00a0<\/p>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\"Spatchcocked\t\t\t\t
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Spatchcocked Chicken with Chile Rub, Meyer Lemons, and Croutons<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRecipe by Ren\u00e9e Robinson\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t