Spatchcocked Game Hens

Spatchcocked?  What the heck is spatchcocked right?  When I first heard that someone I knew spatchcocked his chicken I thought he was doing something dirty.  Not so.  Spatchcocking poultry is simply butterflying a bird prior to cooking it.  In my quest to try everything on the grill at least once I decided to give this a shot.

It’s fairly simple and it has two distinct advantages over cooking a whole chicken or game hen in this case.  First, it cuts down on cooking time.  By spreading the bird flat it cooks more quickly than if it is still a whole chicken.  Second, it makes it easier to cook the chicken more evenly.  A lot of times when doing a whole bird the legs and wings get overcooked.  Not with this method.  Keep reading to see how easy it is to spatchcock your bird…

Here we have four game hens.  I think these ran me about $3/bird.  You can do this with chicken or turkey too.  The cell phone is there to give you some perspective as to the size of the hens:

I brined these hens the night before.  To see the basics to brining check this post where I brined three chickens.  The process is identical.

Once the hens have been removed from the brine and rinsed off it is time to butterfly them.  For this all you need is a pair of kitchen sheers.  You could also do it with a knife but this way is easier and safer.

Put the bird belly down and take the sheers and cut the ribs running out of each side of the spine.  Your goal here is to remove the spine entirely.  First the right side of the spine:

And now the left side:

One whole spine that can be discarded:

Now spread the bird out and flip it over like so:

As of right now the hen still stands up a bit near where the neck use to be.  You want to flatten that out:

With hens simply push down a bit with your hand to flatten it out.  For a chicken you may actually feel a couple of bones break:

Now she’s flat:

Some people will say that you need to remove this bone and cartilage  shown below:

You can if you want but it adds time to the process.  Part of the reason to spatchcock or butterfly is to save time.

So here are my four birds completely butterflied:

In an effort to keep this easy both in terms of cooking time and prep I simply added granulated garlic and Italian herbs to each side of the birds.  I started with the skinless side:

Sorta looks like something from the original Alien, doesn’t it?!?

Just a dusting of garlic and dried Italian herbs (oh and a few turns of fresh black pepper) and flip and repeat:

Now off to the grill.  Going for an indirect grill/smoke session.  Coals on the right.  Nothing on the left:

First a little grill maintenance.  I put the two grill grates I will be using over the coals to get the residuals from prior cookouts heated up:

Then I brush the grates clean and slide them over to the side with no coals.   I leave the side with the coals uncovered to make it easier to add more fuel and smoke wood.  But with such a short cooking time here I won’t need to do either but out of habit I always leave one side open as shown below:

I add the birds and a chunk of peach and close the lid:

The temp settled in a little over 300 which was perfect for this.

And while I am going for quick and easy here I have some time.  It’s gonna take about 90 minutes to indirect these so in the mean time I have a quick way to take them to the next level.  Start with a couple cloves of garlic minced:

Then add the garlic to a pot with two melted sticks of unsalted butter:

Once the skin tightens up and browns a bit, roughly 30 minutes for this session, or when the birds look like these below, brush with the butter/garlic mixture:

Here we have 60 minutes on the grill.  The two birds on the upper rack were the ones closest to the fire so I put them up top as they were cooking faster than the other two hens:

Another slathering of butter at the 60 minute mark and here we have a closeup of the glistening birds:

And here is the finished product at about 90 minutes.  The butter helps to brown the chicken skin and make it crispier than with just the granulated garlic/Italian herb mixture alone.  How good does this look:

An easy and interesting way to liven up a chicken dinner as well as make it quicker to grill.

If you like the above recipe for doing poultry and are interested in other dishes the Grillin Fools have done with chicken or turkey click here.

If you have any questions about the game hens, feel free to comment below or email me.

Also, you can follow the Grillin Fools on Facebook and post your own grillin pictures, or keep up with us on Twitter@GrillinFool (no S).

1. 

   My Year on the Grill says:

   August 11, 2009 at 8:34 AM

   Thank you for the EXCELLENT post. I especially like the detailed photos you always use. I will be venturing into the game hen world soon, and I have bookmarked your page and have already been following your site.

   Your site is the best!

   reply
   • 

     Scott says:

     August 11, 2009 at 9:06 AM

     YearOnTheGrill,

     Been following you too. Good stuff on your site. I think I need to add you to my blog roll. What have you got on the menu this week?

     reply
2. 

   Arthur says:

   August 12, 2009 at 6:56 AM

   How did it taste?

   reply