First share- Blackened Butterfly Chicken

[Nick2]

I am new to the forums, but I thought I would share a little and leave this open for comments. Due to cooking for an italian/cajun restaurant (cajun is a common splash in restaurants here), I got the blackened thing down to an art in a skillet...but that gets old really quick and we are here to grill. So I realized quickly that the tenderized boneless skinless breasts were a no-go without turning into cardboard. So I spatchcock the chicken. Once done with that I brine in the normal chicken brine for 8-10 hours. It gets a paper towel dry at this point and then my home-made blackening seasoning under the skin (it burns on the outside if too much is out there). I apply mayo mixed with the seasoning (it comes out red looking just like cajun mayo at burger joints) on the outside and normally inject (not puncturing skin...not sure why, but I just dont like to) with cajon garlic butter.

Indirect heat on the center of the grill (outside burners on...or your cool zone, it stays even in the middle though until the internal temp reaches 165. opening the grlll jacks this recipe all up because it takes longer and the chicken tends to dry out. I normally find a random baste/mop/sauce to put on at the end as the mayo dissipates quickly. I havent nailed down anything uniquely cajun that to use. I havent tried it (because I dont think that it will work), but my favorite cajun sauce is remoulade:

3 part mayo
1 part creole mustard (inglehoffer stone ground beats the crap out of zatarans)
worchestershire
lemon juice
hot sauce (lousianna works better than tabasco...we want pepper taste not heat)
dill
capers
last 2 ingredients optional.

closely followed by (not sure of name...people have called it manier(i cant spell this):
Butter
worcherstershier
garlic
lemon juice
hot sauce (see note above)
black pepper
instructions: melt butter until still creamy (do not substitute oil or margerine)...the butter should be cloudy and not see through. add other stuff. stir...use. I wouldnt grill with this, just dip or douse after.

hope you guys enjoy. this is my first attempt at sharing a recipe and i have to admit...it is a little scary and I am not sure that this is recipe anything out of the ordinary. the blackening seasoning is a little different from the standard and i like to think that it is my super secret tech(not that anyone will be clamoring after my recipes).

 

[Smokey Lew]

Hey Nick, thanks for sharing your recipe. I've never done a blackened or Cajun style chicken before. Your recipe looks tempting. Think I will print it out and chew on it some. Might make for a real tasty weekend project.

 

[Nick2]

Next time I do it I will take pictures and I appreciate the kind words. I may bite the bullet and post the seasoning recipe as I fear it may be more standard than I thought.

 

[Captain Morgan]

so you spatch it then you brine it?

 

[Nick2]

That was what I did last time and it was better than what I had been doing before(injecting only). I am not sure that this was the best way, but the brining was noticible for increased moisture inside.

This was also my first attempt at mayo on the skin and I will never go back to without...never putting the skin on direct heat and having that mayo on there achieved bite-through skin. I hadn't tried to achieve bite-through skin before this and it was normally crispy for me...but this was better-it was like the meat was covered in cajun butter.

I don't really have a reference as far as someone doin it better, and this was the best I ever made-so I think this was on the right track. If anyone has a hint or two to improve this process, I would love to make an attempt at it the next time I try this.

 

[Tri Tip]

Nick. thanks for sharing. I'll have to give it a try.

 

[Nick2]

Update: cooked this over the weekend and pics will follow tonight. One word of warning, don't inject + brine. One or the other works fine and I accidently wrote both in this thread. I ended up having to cook the chicken longer after the fact to brig the texture to moist and not too wet.

 

[Captain Morgan]

on top of that, me thinks that spatching a chicken, then brining, may need
a shorter brine time.

 

[Nick2]

you may be right, after all I find that family liking it is a different animal from being objectively good. However, the brine was pretty weak last time and the texture of the chicken was not off. I did not keep track of the cook time, so that may have been a factor too. Also, i think my grill was sitting at 350 and above most of the time, but I had to keep opening it grill vegitables as I was in a rush. Pics didnt go up tonight, but will be forthcoming.

EDIT: Pictures are giving me a hard time. Any suggested best practices for getting pictures on here?

 

[Nick2]

THREAD RESSURECTION!!!

But seriously, I remembered this today- the closest spice I have ever bought to the home-made blackening seasoning is Chef Paul Prudohmme's Redfish Magic. Stuff is great on anything and is not really limited to being a fish-ony product.