Butterfly for Christmas

Well, I had in mind a barbecue chicken for Christmas dinner once the boys were back from their big family lunch with their mother. Bummer that it was pouring rain, but not to fear, the oven will have to substitute.

What I’ve been thinking over since my last Portuguese chicken experience was what makes this style so different from regular barbecue bird. The obvious reason is that the chicken is butterflied, not whole.

Why butterfly

Because the chicken lays out flat, it can be barbecued direct on the grill, rather than through convection or rotated on a spit. It also cooks more quickly as a result. The downside can be that it can be dry if not prepared properly. This is what I found in my last Portuguese chicken experience, which made me think - “I can do better than this”.

Also, because you remove the chicken back, which generally gets tossed out uneaten when you cook the whole bird, this portion can be retained for later stock making. Just have a bag in the freezer, and once it’s full, it’s stock time! No waste. Good.

How butterfly

First, I always take out the wishbone, because the kids like the wish thing. This is easily removed by going to the neck end and isolating the bone with a small, sharp knife. The bone pops out easily.

Take a whole chicken and place it breast down on a chopping board.

Starting from the tail end, use kitchen shears to cut down one side, the full length of the spine. Then repeat down the other side. This should leave you with a four centimetre slab of backbone for your stock stockpile.

Flip the bird over and flatten out with the breast bone facing towards you. There’s a kind of coin-shaped piece of cartilage at the top of the breast bone. Slice it down the middle then remove it. This reveals the top of the breast bone. You can then follow the bone with your fingers under the thin membrane, all the way to the end and along the cartilage at the end of the bone. Do this on both sides, then lift out the breast bone. This is also called the keel bone, and now you can see why.

With the chicken still laid breast down, trim excess fat and skin flaps. Finally, clip off the wing tips. These are better used in the stock bag than being burnt on the barbecue.

Place flattened, skin side up, in an oven dish or something similar. Here's a YouTube video which shows the basics.

Two bad things about the vid is 1. Throwing out the stock bones 2. Cooking while wearing a ring.

The marinade

The marinade to butterflied chicken is what stuffing is to whole chicken. It keeps it moist and flavoursome.

My favourite is like this.

• .25 cup olive oil
• Juice of one lemon
• Teaspoon salt
• Tablespoon ground black pepper
• Tablespoon smokey paprika

Mix this in a bowl, and apply to the chicken using a pastry brush, so that it’s generously covered. Keep the remainder of the marinade for later.

Cover the chicken and let it rest in the fridge for a least an hour.

Cooking

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Give the chicken another coat of marinade before placing in the oven. After 30 minutes, baste with marinade again. After another 30, repeat. Another 15, and it’s done.

Red and hot!

Last night I wasn’t feeling so hot (of course I was hot, I just wasn’t feeling that way), so I pulled out all five of my frying pans: which can only mean one thing. Mexican!

Well, my experimental, chicken-stock-softened, supermarket-bought, fried white corn tortillas were a disaster. I will hide them in my lunch box, and eat them hurriedly with my shoulders hunched at work tomorrow.

My Mexican rice, however, was three things. Red, hot, and red-hot!

Today, to console myself for tortilla failure, I lobbed into the Mexico City factory at Mortdale. All their sales dudes were out on delivery (I should have phoned ahead, but I am sooo impetuous), so I high-tailed it back to the inner west where Essential Ingredient has returned from its quixotic relocation to the North Shore, and sells Fireworks corn tortillas for $3.65 for a packet of 12. I am waiting on an email reply from Mexico City to see if they have retail distributers about the place too. If so, I shall post.

I was ravenous by the time I returned home, whereupon fresh tortillas and last night’s Mexican rice, reunited me with my hotness!

Recipe: Mexican rice

Red, hot, rice

This is the too-often overlooked staple of Mexican food. It is delicious and satisfying as a main meal; it can step back and let pulled pork or BBQ chicken pieces take the main credits; it works splendidly cold as a salad; it keeps well in the fridge or freezer. Am I getting through?

This version is spicy, with green and red chillies from my courtyard garden. Cooking for children, I use a half red capsicum, finely chopped, and add a pinch of paprika. My youngest son fully loves red capsicum, and my oldest fully doesn’t.

I find the capsicum is cooked in nicely, hidden in plain sight, and we’re all happy!

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups long grain rice
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 1.5 cup all purpose tomato salsa
• 1.5 cup chicken stock
• 3.5 cup water
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 red tabasco chillies, sliced
• 2 green tabasco chillies, sliced
• Salt
• Pepper
• Tea towel

Method

This is derived from the glorious Diana Kennedy.

Rice: there is a lot of talk about rinsing rice. I don’t rinse rice. I buy good quality rice (rice is cheap), which should be hard and true. Rinsing is a waste of time and water. Gluey rice is not due to the tiny amounts of starch that might be on the outside of the grain membrane, it is due to breaching the membrane (Diana recommends rinsing, but I lovingly disagree).

Heat oil in a generous, heavy-based frying pan on medium heat.

Golden and good to go!

Add the rice and stir through the oil, cooking until rice is lightly golden (5–10 minutes). Drain off oil.

Add to pan tomato salsa, garlic, chillies, salt and pepper.

Once it comes to a high simmer, drop the temperature down and stir. You need to get the mixture down so that it is almost dry again (about 10 minutes).

Add the water. Now, do not stir, but gently even out the rice so that there is even coverage of rice and water. Put the wooden spoon in the sink; say goodbye to it; its job is done. You will stir no more!

What we are doing now is simmering away the liquid and fluffing up the rice. As the liquid cooks off, we gradually drop down the heat. The simmer stays constant; the heat gradually drops. When the rice starts to lift and separate (like a Berlei Bra) and little volcano holes start to appear across the surface (about 10 minutes), remove the pan from the heat and cover with a cotton tea towel.

To keep the towel from flopping into the rice, tuck the corners under the pan, so you get a very Day of the Dead, drum thing happening! The tea towel draws out the moisture, and really helps fluff out the rice (When it comes to tea towels, Diana and I are as one).

And there it is, neither stodgy nor oily; full of flavours both subtle and strong; lunch and re-brand friendly; you can add peas and carrots, mussels and chorizo. Go crazy. Mexican rice!