Grilled Butterflied Chicken With Spanish Olives

Submitted by Pastryismybiz

"Marinated chicken with Spanish Olive Tapenade that turns out juicy with a smoky garlic and fresh olive and caper flavor tweak. Leftovers (if any) stay moist if held over in refrigerator for several days."

 

• Ready In: 50mins
• Ingredients: 8
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• Marinade

• 88.74 ml salt
• 88.74 ml sugar
• 2.46 ml pepper, cracked
• 1360.77-1587.57 g whole chickens

• Tapenade

• 10 pitted Spanish olives
• 44.37 ml olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• 4.92 ml capers

directions

1. Marinade:

2. Dissolve salt and sugar with pepper in 1 quart cold water and add with butterflied chicken in a gallon size zipper lock bag and refrigerate for at least 2 hours up to four hours. Remove chicken from bag,rinse thoroughly, pat dry with paper towels.

3. Tapenade:

4. Pulse olives, olive oil, garlic and capers in food processor until mixture becomes a slightly chunky paste (do not overprocess). Loosen chicken skin and push tapenade under skin of breasts, thighs and legs and season with pepper to taste. At this stage you may also sprinkle with a good BBQ seasoning to taste.
5. Place chicken bone side down on grill over a medium heat. For a more smoky taste add a few wood chips.
6. Top chicken at this stage with a flat pan weighted with several bricks and grill until chicken is a deep brown, about 12 minutes.
7. Remove weighted sheet pan and bricks and flip chicken over with large metal spatula and grill until instant read thermometer reads 160 degrees at the deepest part of the thigh,and juice runs clear, about 12 to 15 minutes longer.
8. Upon removing chicken to platter, brush both sides with a mixture of honey and fresh lime juice. Cover with foil and let rest for 15 minutes before carving.
9. NOTE: If you have never butterflied a chicken let your butcher do it for you. Whether a prepackaged whole chicken or one from the butchers case, they will do it for you at no charge. This recipe excels with a butterflied chicken, cut up chicken, well it's just not the same.

Reviews

[Chef VP]

As a brined, grilled chicken, this is an excellent recipe, before you even get to the tapenade or glaze. I like the idea of brining this in a quart of water in a gallon-sized zip-top bag. Many recipes that call for brining use a gallon or more of water, and you have to empty your fridge or use an ice chest to hold the meat and brining liquid. This is MUCH more manageable. As for the recipe itself, I found the green olive flavor slightly overwhelming. I think I would go with 5 green and 5 black olives, next time, and maybe add one more clove of garlic. There are no amounts listed for the lime juice/honey glaze, but you don't need much. I would suggest 1 Tbsp of honey to 2 or 3 Tbsp of lime juice (which would be the juice of a medium lime). OPTIONS: my 3- and 8-year-olds both loved this, but we eat a very eclectic mix of food. This recipe would work well with a good BBQ rub that was heavy on spices (garlic and pepper, in particular) and light on sugar, then glazed with BBQ sauce at the end. When some of my wife's family (who are less adventurous eaters) come to visit, I may cook several chickens, one or two with the original recipe and one or two BBQ birds.

 

[Chef 565650 Jim]

WOW! This is a wonderful dish full of flavor. I cheated a little as I knew I had a jar of Olive Tapenade in the pantry. I took about a fourth a cup of fresh basil leaves and a clove of garlic and chopped them fine and added them to a few tablespoons of the prepared tepenade. I added about one teaspoon of steak seasoning to this mix for the salt, pepper, and celery seed. I made a cavity under the entire skin with the handle of a common table knife (it won't cut through the skin) and then stuffed all my mix under it. Don't forget the brining of the chicken - it is so easy and makes the meat so succulent. This is a real "keep" in my recipe book and this is plenty good for company. Try it and enjoy!. Jim in So. Calif.