Happy Day of Thanks!

MADDIE DAY here. The turkey is spatchcocked and dry brined. My pies are made as well as my mother's bread stuffing. Mashed potatoes and whipped cream come later, along with guests bringing sides and wine and children and good cheer. Does it get any better?

From all of us at Mystery Lovers' Kitchen to all of you, we wish you a delicious Thanksgiving filled with love and warmth and a good book at the end. We are thankful for your comments, for your reading habits, and for being part of our mystery-foodie community.

Readers: What are your plans for the day?

Spatchcock Chicken from @MaddieDayAuthor

MADDIE DAY here, writing from north of Boston.

I discovered a recipe for roasted spatchcocked chicken a year or two ago. It was originally from the New York Times, but I have adapted it to my own. Now I won't roast a whole chicken any other way, and I even did our Thanksgiving turkey the same way. The breast comes out moist, the dark meat gets thoroughly cooked, and, oh, the crispy skin is so tasty!

What is spatchcocking, you might fairly ask? The following is from Etymology Online Dictionary, my favorite site to look up the etymology (history) of a word.

spatchcock: in cookery, denoting a method of grilling a game bird after splitting it open along the spine and laying it flat; a word of obscure origin. It originated in Ireland in the late eighteenth century as a noun, referring to the bird thus dispatched, and indeed it may have been based on the verb dispatch, with the addition of cock. Another probable influence is the earlier spitchcock, a word of mysterious origin denoting similar treatment meted out to eels and other fish. [Ayto, "Diner's Dictionary"]

My dear partner Hugh kindly served as model in the the following photos, but it's not only because I can't work with food and take pictures at the same time. It turns out he's better than I at preparing the chicken for roasting, a job I am happy to cede!

Roasted Spatchcock Chicken

Ingredients

1 chicken, 3 1/2 to 4 pounds, patted dry

1 tablespoon dark brown sugar (can omit)

2 ½ teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon chile powder

1 teaspoon sweet or smoked paprika

1 teaspoon dry mustard powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions

Spatchcock the chicken by using poultry shears, kitchen scissors, or a sharp knife to cut along one side of the backbone until the chicken opens. If you like you can cut along the other side of the backbone and remove it, or leave it attached to roast with the rest of the bird. 

Open up the bird.

Turn it over and place it so it lies flat, breast side up. Press hard onto the center of the breast until you feel a pop, and the breast lies more or less flat.

I didn't quite get the shot of him pressing down on the breastbone.

In a small bowl, mix together salt, sugar (if you use it), chile powder, paprika, mustard powder, oregano, pepper, garlic powder, and allspice.

Gently loosen the skin from the meat.  

Smear the mixture all over the chicken and under the skin.

Lay chicken, skin side up, on a rimmed baking sheet (or plate) and refrigerate uncovered for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours.

Heat oven to 425 degrees. If the chicken isn’t on a rimmed baking sheet, transfer it to one. Roast chicken until the juices run clear when the thickest part of the thigh is pricked with a fork (an instant-read thermometer plunged into the thickest part of the breast will read 150), about an hour, depending on the size of the chicken.

Remove from oven, cover bird with foil and let rest for 10 minutes before carving. Serve with roasted vegetables and a green salad.

Option: toss chunks of onion, potato, sweet potato, bell peppers, or any other vegetables with olive oil and add around the edges of the chicken.

Apologies for the glass plate on a patterned tablecloth!

Enjoy!

Readers: how do you like your chicken prepared?

My most recent release is Batter Off Dead, Country Store Mystery #10, out now!

My next release is Murder in a Cape Cottage, the fourth Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery.

We hope you'll visit Maddie and her Agatha Award-winning alter ego Edith Maxwell on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.

 

SPATCHCOCKED!

by Sheila Connolly

This is your chicken.

This is your chicken on drugs.

Oops, wrong script.  The latter picture is actually a spatchcocked chicken.  Don't you love that word?  Actually it was hyperactive Gordon Ramsay who introduced me to the term, on his entertaining cable television show The F Word.  All it means is that you remove the backbone and the breastbone from your chicken (or any other bird) so you can flatten it and cook it on the grill or broil it.

How do you remove the backbone (with a minimum of wrestling and cursing)?  Poultry shears.  I inherited these from my mother (who never in her life spatchcocked a chicken, as far as I can recall).  Snip along both sides of the spine and remove it, nick the sternum so it splits easily and then wrench out the cartilage and bone (did I say this was for the faint of heart?), and then lean on the bird to make it lay flat. 

It's summer (someone should tell the New England weather that), and it's grilling season.  I will confess I am a grilling dinosaur:  I've been using the same Weber grill for decades.  No propane, no fancy dials--just fire and a cover, and a couple of vents to control the temperature.  I'll admit that I know that charcoal briquets are evil, and the fire-starter stuff you squirt all over them makes things worse, but I tell myself I don't use them that much.  Really.  And if it's 100 degrees in my non-air-conditioned kitchen, no way am I heating up the broiler.

Now it's time to marinate your flat chicken.  I have a go-to marinade that I cribbed from Julia Child's From Julia Child's Kitchen, but of course I've modified it.  It's simple:  lemon peel, fresh ginger, garlic, soy sauce, olive oil, a dash of sesame oil, thyme, salt and pepper.  Oh, you want measurements?

The thinly-peeled rind of 2 lemons

2-3 thin slices fresh ginger

2 Tblsp soy sauce

4 Tblsp olive oil

1 tsp sesame oil

2-4 cloves garlic (I use a garlic press, which St. Julia frowns upon, or you can mince it finely)

Thyme (fresh if possible)

Freshly-ground pepper

If you love to julienne, have at it with the lemon peel and the ginger.  If you're in a hurry, grate the ginger and even the lemon rind.  I promise I won't tell anyone.  Use fresh thyme if you have it, but dried is fine too.

I had to add this picture of the liquid ingredients just because they looked so cool when I combined them.

Mix everything together and massage your bird with it.  If you don't want your hands to smell like garlic and sesame oil for the rest of the day, wear gloves or paint the marinade on with a brush.

Now cook your bird.  You're going to have to use your judgment here, but this is what I do.

--make a nice fire in your grill, Wait until the coals are covered with grey ash, and spread out the coals evenly. 

--put your grate over the coals and lay your flat chicken on it, skin side down.

--Cover the grill and cook for ten minutes.

--Turn over your chicken, cover the grill again, and cook for another ten minutes.

As you can guess, the timing depends on how big and how hot your fire is, not to mention how big your chicken is.  You can poke the chicken with your finger to test it, and if it's too squishy, it's probably not cooked through.  If the legs fall off, it's definitely done.

And there you go!  It smells delicious, it's low calorie, and it's easy.  Happy summer grilling!  And have a wonderful (and safe) holiday weekend.

-------------------------------

Almost forgot to mention:  Let's Play Dead comes out next Tuesday!  Shocking things happen at the Philadelphia children's museum, Let's Play, and Nell Pratt is on the scene. Click here or on the book cover to learn more.

But wait!  There's more!  My first e-book, Called Home, debuted on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and a lot of other places.  It's a prequel to the Orchard Mystery series, and there's a ghost--maybe.  And it includes a peek at the next book in the series, Bitter Harvest, coming in August. Click here or on the book cover to jump to the Amazon product page.