Home › Cookery › To Broil Chicken
To Broil Chicken
Kill the chicken the day before using, split open in the back, nicely clean, and, if the weather is warm, slightly sprinkle with salt. If for breakfast, half an hour before press between the folds of a clean towel till dry, grease well with fresh butter, sprinkle with pepper and salt and lay on a gridiron, over hot coals, with the inside of the chicken down. Let it cook principally from this side, but turn often till the outside of the chicken is of a bright, yellow brown. When thoroughly done, pour over it melted butter, sprinkle pepper, and sift pounded or grated cracker.--Mrs. S. T.
A spatchcocked bird cooked over coals, written for a household that killed its own poultry the day before breakfast. The method transfers cleanly to a charcoal grill or a heavy grill pan.
- The overnight rest"Kill the chicken the day before" is about rigor mortis passing off, not flavor development; a freshly killed bird cooked at once is tough. Store-bought chicken has already had this rest. Keep the bird refrigerated at 40F or below throughout, not held at room temperature under a sprinkle of salt as the original allows.
- Split open in the backThis is spatchcocking. Cut down either side of the backbone with shears, remove it, and press the bird flat, cracking the breastbone if it resists. Flat means even contact with the grate and even cooking.
- Bird sizeBroiling chickens in this period were young spring birds, probably in the range of 1 1/2 to 2 lb dressed. Use a 2 1/2 to 3 lb bird at most; a modern 4 lb roaster is too thick to broil through before the skin burns.
- Gridiron over hot coalsAim for medium coals you can hold a hand over for about four seconds, and set the grate several inches up. The instruction to cook "principally from this side" with the cut side down is the hinge: the bone shields the meat while the heat drives through, and the skin gets only enough time at the end to color.
- Doneness"Thoroughly done" in recipes of this kind generally implied no pink at the joint. Work to 165F in the thickest part of the thigh, away from bone. Total time is roughly 30 to 40 minutes for a 3 lb bird, cut side down for the first two thirds.
- Pounded crackerGrated cracker is dried, finely crushed unsalted soda or water cracker, scattered over the buttered bird as a light crisp finish. Panko is coarser and will not behave the same way; crush plain saltines and hold back on the salt.
- YieldOne 2 1/2 to 3 lb bird prepared this way serves two generously, three at a breakfast table with eggs and bread alongside.
Broiling over coals is often said to have been the usual treatment for a young chicken in Virginia kitchens, and this recipe belongs to the Southern breakfast tradition rather than to dinner: the timing instruction "if for breakfast, half an hour before" assumes a cook at the hearth well before the household came down. Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by named and initialed Virginia housekeepers, is full of these signed fragments, and "Mrs. S. T." is one of dozens of such attributions. The gridiron was a flat iron rack on short legs, set directly over coals raked forward on the hearth, and it survived in Southern cooking long after stoves arrived. The dusting of pounded cracker is a period habit that shows up on broiled fish and chops as well, standing in for the crumb finish that a modern cook would more likely toast in butter.