Yay, I grilled whole chicken, Yes I did, Yes I did…
Last Friday, we fired up our grill, the first and the much awaited grilling of this Summer. I didn’t even let the thoughts of grilling chicken wings or legs or steak come near me. I wanted to throw something different on the grill and make it very special, that’s when the thought of grilling whole chicken hit me. As you all know that I love cooking whole chicken; well, it saves me some time slicing up the chicken and most importantly whole chicken will make a beautiful presentation. While serving whole chicken, most of the people would be targeting the legs, so if you are the host you might have to let go the thought of having the legs. If you are a guest, go ahead and make sure to get onto to the front or volunteer to carve the chicken and gently save one of the legs for you (LOL). I am not kidding, you can try that 😛
I’d wished many times if there were many legs for a chicken, especially when I was young. Chicken legs being the tastiest part of a chicken, had always trigged a fight between my sister and I. If it was only one chicken, my mom always saved the legs for us, still we fought. Greedy sisters we were and still are !!!
Before grilling the chicken, it has to be marinated with a sauce, right? So, I made my own sauce with some basic ingredients. After massaging the chicken with the marinade, I let it rest for a few hours. Overnight marination is the best, since I wasn’t hit by this idea the previous day I only could marinate for a few hours. That was good enough for me. Throwing the whole chicken directly onto the hot grill didn’t sound that good to me as I felt the outside would grill fast and the inside won’t be cooked well. I wasn’t up for an experimentation, so I cooked the whole chicken in a pressure cooker for a few minutes till it was slightly cooked, not to over cook it was my goal. After that, it was placed on the grill. I flipped it over and over till the chicken was grilled to perfection and looked gorgeously brown in color. I did flip too much which caused one of the wings to fall apart, and I gobbled it up. The wing tasted so delicious that I couldn’t wait till the chicken was out of the grill. My man stood astonished. Before he could tear off the chicken I had to stop him so that I could take a few pictures of it. As I clicked pictures: he sat anxiously, his mouth watered, his hands tried to attack the chicken. Before he got really mad, I wound up the photo session. I don’t remember what happend to the chicken after that.
The marinade or the sauce that was left in the pressure cooker was cooked for some more till it thickened. While serving, poured the marinade over the whole chicken. Honestly, I have no words to say how delicious it was. The perfectly grilled whole chicken, the sauce; it was a splendid treat for the eyes and for the taste buds.
Much awaited Summer is here, we did hit the beach on Saturday. The water was very cold, but the weather was very hot. Seeing the beach after around 7 months did bring out a lot of emotions in me: joy, excitement and fun! Sharing a picture with you all:
Port Stanley Lighthouse (Instagram Click)
Grilled Whole Chicken, with homemade Marinade (Note: One of the wings is missing, I flipped it over and over)
Step By Step Pictures
Marinated whole chicken
Pressure cooked chicken on the grill
Turning golden in color
Placed directly on the grill
Flipped over and more grilled
- Whole Chicken- 1, medium size
- Non-stick cooking spray
- Lemon, sliced
- Ginger, chopped- 3 inch slice
- Garlic- 2 large cloves
- Tomato-, chopped-1
- Green pepper, chopped- ½ of a green pepper
- Green chili, chopped- 2, large
- Cardamom, whole- 2
- Cloves, whole- 3
- Mint leaves- 4 leaves
- Cilantro, chopped- 1 handful
- Ground black pepper- 2 tsp
- Kashmiri red chili powder- 1½ tsp
- Ground Cumin- 1 tsp
- Fennel powder- 2 tsp
- Salt- ½ tsp
- Lemon juice- 2 tbsp
- Water- enough to make a thick paste
- Remove all the internal organs from the chicken, rinse the whole chicken under running water. To ward off any smell, you could squeeze a few tablespoons of lemon juice inside the chicken and rinse it with water.
- Do not remove the skin, for grilling it's good to keep the skin.
- Using a sharp knife, make a few gashes or lines over the chicken. Keep aside.
- In a blender, puree the above mentioned ingredients "to make the marinade" adding enough water to make a smooth paste.
- Pour the marinade over the whole chicken taken in a bowl, rub it all over and inside the chicken.
- Cover the chicken with a plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or for a few hours.
- After the marination, place the whole chicken in a pressure cooker, add around ¼ cup of water and pressure cook for 10 to 15 minutes (no need to wait for the whistle). We just need the chicken to be cooked slightly, so don't over cook it.
- If you don't have pressure cooker, cook it covered in a large pan.
- Remove the cooker from the heat, let the pressure of the cooker subside.
- Fire up the grill, spray the grill with non-stick cooking spray.
- Line the grill with aluminum foil, spray the foil with non-stick cooking spray.
- Open the pressure cooker, using two spatulas lift the chicken from the cooker and place it breast side down on the aluminum foil placed over the grill.
- Save the marinade or gravy that's left in the cooker.
- Spray the whole chicken with non-stick cooking oil spray.
- Cover the grill and grill at medium high heat for sometime.
- Flip the chicken over and grill, repeat flipping a couple of times. Be very gentle, use two wooden spatulas to flip it over.
- When both sides have turned golden brown in color. Remove the aluminum foil and place the chicken directly over the grill.
- Grill both sides for a few minutes till it turns brown in color.
- Remove from the grill, squeeze lemon juice over the grilled chicken and place it on a platter.
- Heat the gravy that's left in the cooker or pan (if you are cooking in a pan). Let it thicken up a bit, remove from the heat and pour the sauce into a bowl.
- Carve the whole chicken, pour the sauce over the chicken pieces and serve with grilled corn, potatoes, grilled veggie skewers etc.
