Oregano Garlic Chicken

This recipe was born somewhat as an accident; we were going to split a chicken to put on the grill, and decided that rather than season the exterior of the chicken, we would try to season underneath the skin.  This was an amazing decision.

Don’t get me wrong, it looks and feels a little different at first if you haven’t done it before, but the result is totally worth it.  We cooked this on our grill with indirect heat, and made a similar recipe in the oven with a grill pan.  Both are delicious, but it is the time of year to grill–so if you can get outside and grill, get some vitamin D and chicken on!

Ingredients
1 2lb whole chicken, split
2 tsp fresh oregano
6 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Method

First you’ll want to split the chicken.  Using a kitchen shears you’ll remove the spine of the chicken and then flatten it out.  You may remember this from our other split chicken recipe of late.  You’ll also want to either start a fire on your grill (with indirect heat) or preheat the oven to 375ºF.

Next you’ll want to create a paste of the garlic and oregano.  I used a mortar and pestle, and it was cool, but labor intensive.  You might be better off with a food processor.

Rub the mixture under the chicken’s skin.  You may have to break through some membrane to get in there, and you’ll want to be gentle as to not puncture the skin, but it’s worth it.

Rub olive oil onto the exterior of the bird, and season with freshly ground salt and pepper.

Place on grill (we used our upper rack) and close to cook.  We worked to keep our grill around 350ºF and the chicken was ready in under 2 hours.  Use a thermometer in the breast and remove when the meat reaches 160ºF.

Carve and serve.  This delicious, golden brown chicken was delicious for dinner, as well as for snacks and torn up on salad later in the week.  Enjoy!

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NEW! Printer-friendly recipe.  I’ll be going back and making more of these as time allows, so please bear with me.