know of a good recipe for grilled butterflied chicken Mexican-style?

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e9999

e9999

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there is a mexican place nearby that does an awesome grilled chicken. They butterfly it, with a nice spicy marinade or rub (don't know what's in there); stick it on the grill, and it is out of this world. Tasty outside, moist inside. Doesn't seem to take a lot of time on the grill either.

I'd like to try that on the grill. Know of a good recipe? The rub is likely the key I guess. Seen a couple of recipes on the web, but very different approaches. Tips on the butterflying part? (never done that)

I'm thinking this may be a good take along dish for camping. Marinated in a big baggie in the fridge, take out, grill, serve with cold beer and beans cowboy style... mmm.....
 
Lately I've been cooking all my chicken breasts butterflied. It cooks twice as fast and keeps the meat moist on the outside. Just cut the breast in half starting on the curved side and fold open on the straight side. Long straight knife helps. My recipe that I've been perfecting lately is a little more detailed than probably what you are looking for but here it goes: Stuffed poblano peppers

Grill chicken and on the last turn I spread a nice layer of habanero/honey sauce on it. I make the sauce by cleaning and deseeding the habaneros. Throw them in a blender with a generous amount of honey. Blend up and freeze in small portions to be used whenever.

Remove from grill and cut chicken in bite size portions. Add even more sauce if you like it really hot.

Mix chicken with pre-cooked and refrigerated (cold) brown rice and white shredded mexican cheese together in bowl. How much? ( Equal parts chicken and rice and 1/2 part cheese.)

Stuff mixture in cleaned out poblano peppers. Leave stem, cut slit in pepper length-wise.

Wrap peppers with two strips of thin bacon. Hold bacon on with presoaked wet toothpicks. Cook peppers now or refrigerate/freeze for future.

Grill bacon wrapped stuffed peppers (do not let bacon turn black) Fire is good but turn often. After bacon is cooked and browned, let peppers cook on upper grate for about 15 minutes. Baste bacon and outside of pepper with a pre cooked brown sugar/ butter /water mixture while on the upper grate.

Nothing but raves and clean plates from everyone that has tried this one.
 
SUMMIT CRUISERS said:
Lately I've been cooking all my chicken breasts butterflied. It cooks twice as fast and keeps the meat moist on the outside. Just cut the breast in half starting on the curved side and fold open on the straight side. Long straight knife helps. My recipe that I've been perfecting lately is a little more detailed than probably what you are looking for but here it goes: Stuffed poblano peppers

Grill chicken and on the last turn I spread a nice layer of habanero/honey sauce on it. I make the sauce by cleaning and deseeding the habaneros. Throw them in a blender with a generous amount of honey. Blend up and freeze in small portions to be used whenever.

Remove from grill and cut chicken in bite size portions. Add even more sauce if you like it really hot.

Mix chicken with pre-cooked and refrigerated (cold) brown rice and white shredded mexican cheese together in bowl. How much? ( Equal parts chicken and rice and 1/2 part cheese.)

Stuff mixture in cleaned out poblano peppers. Leave stem, cut slit in pepper length-wise.

Wrap peppers with two strips of thin bacon. Hold bacon on with presoaked wet toothpicks. Cook peppers now or refrigerate/freeze for future.

Grill bacon wrapped stuffed peppers (do not let bacon turn black) Fire is good but turn often. After bacon is cooked and browned, let peppers cook on upper grate for about 15 minutes. Baste bacon and outside of pepper with a pre cooked brown sugar/ butter /water mixture while on the upper grate.

Nothing but raves and clean plates from everyone that has tried this one.
Click to expand...


Man, that sounds awesome.
 
e9999 said:
there is a mexican place nearby that does an awesome grilled chicken. They butterfly it, with a nice spicy marinade or rub (don't know what's in there); stick it on the grill, and it is out of this world. Tasty outside, moist inside. Doesn't seem to take a lot of time on the grill either.

I'd like to try that on the grill. Know of a good recipe? The rub is likely the key I guess. Seen a couple of recipes on the web, but very different approaches. Tips on the butterflying part? (never done that)

I'm thinking this may be a good take along dish for camping. Marinated in a big baggie in the fridge, take out, grill, serve with cold beer and beans cowboy style... mmm.....
Click to expand...

I can see how butterflying the chicken would make them cook faster and potentially stay moister, and I imagine it would be easy to adapt any rub you like to it.

I'd blend together dark chili powder, onion powder, and garlic powder with chipoltle powder and dried oregano, and rub that on them the night before the fire with a pinch of brown sugar. Once they come off the grill, squeeze some fresh limes over them, and serve with rice and refrieds.

Hope this helps.
 
thanks for all the above
what I really like about the chicken I got there is that sauce they put on, ends up caramelizing on the skin sort of, a bit crispy, a bit spicy. gotta figure that part out.

On the recipe I found it did suggest some sort of spinal surgery on the chicken to be able to butterfly it properly. Not quite sure what that means but mentions of pulling the backbone off first.
 
e9999 said:
thanks for all the above
what I really like about the chicken I got there is that sauce they put on, ends up caramelizing on the skin sort of, a bit crispy, a bit spicy. gotta figure that part out.

On the recipe I found it did suggest some sort of spinal surgery on the chicken to be able to butterfly it properly. Not quite sure what that means but mentions of pulling the backbone off first.
Click to expand...


Oh, spatchcokcing a chicken?
Pretty easy, just plop it on the cutting board, neck-side down, and on the left side of the tail, slice down with your sharpest boning knife. It'll bust clean through all the ribs and the wishbone without issue. Repeat for the opposite side.
Lay the bird out flat, and either split the keelbone down the center, or cut it out.
Cut holes in the butt skin flaps, tuck the leg knuckles into them, and you now have a spatchcocked chicken, ready to grill.
 
Combat Chuck said:
Oh, spatchcokcing a chicken?
Pretty easy, just plop it on the cutting board, neck-side down, and on the left side of the tail, slice down with your sharpest boning knife. It'll bust clean through all the ribs and the wishbone without issue. Repeat for the opposite side.
Lay the bird out flat, and either split the keelbone down the center, or cut it out.
Cut holes in the butt skin flaps, tuck the leg knuckles into them, and you now have a spatchcocked chicken, ready to grill.
Click to expand...


thanks. Funny, I just found a description of spatchcocking yesterday while researching this in my "The Barbecue Bible" by Raichlen. Seems a bit different from yours. Will experiment. Unfortunately, there was no recipe for Mexican-style grilling in there. I did improvise something with Santa Maria Bqb rub, Herbes de Provence, and EVOO on regular chicken breast, but it wasn't anywhere as good as the Mexican place.
 
just remove the backbone and flatten the bird. pretty straight-forward.

try introducing some achiote in the mix and definitely brine the bird for several hours before grilling. it will help to keep it very moist.
 
I eat a lot of boneless skinless chicken breast. :frown:

What I do for grilling is lay the breast skin side down, well the side that use to have skin down anyway, on a cutting board. Then slice the breast in half by holding the knife parallel to the cutting board, I try to start the cut right where the breast thickens out so I wind up with two pieces about the same thickness. (A damp towel under the cutting board works wonders when doing this.) What this does is allow the breast to cook more uniformly so you don't dry the skinny part out before the thick part is cooked through.

We use a pretty simple seasoning approach for a Latino flavor. I marinate the breast pieces in lime juice and chili powder for about 15 or 20 minutes before grilling. Don't let them marinate to long or the lime juice will "cook" the chicken.

I believe it is the lime juice that makes the chicken come out so moist and tender.
 
rusty_tlc said:
I believe it is the lime juice that makes the chicken come out so moist and tender.
Click to expand...
Agreed!
Limes always make it to the table when eating Mexican.
 
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