As I prepared for an early summer grill class last week I pinched myself. Anyone who has written a cookbook knows just what I mean. After months of testing, tweaking, writing, re-writing, testing some more, editing, copy editing, agonizing, dreaming, there’s a book. And then there’s someone saying, “Please, please teach us how to grill!”
What’s the expression? “When the rubber meets the road.” This class would be that moment for me and the book, as I devised a menu entirely on the grill, from amuse-bouches to dessert.
Naturally all ingredients were seasonal. Everything was purchased, organized, measured, chilled, softened, ready. The grills were polished to a fare-thee-well. I knew the recipes worked because they don’t get in a book if they don’t. But the night before I was sleepless. Timing had to be perfect, we had eight people, two grills, and 7 recipes each with several moving parts. So I worked and re-worked the game plan in my head, going over every detail until I had it right.
FRENCH GRILL featured on Grill Maestro Steven Raichlen’s blog Barbecue!Bible – Take a Look!
arrived the next day in a flurry of enthusiastic nervousness because they’d rarely grilled, which is why they’d come of course. Once aprons were firmly tied and tea towels were hanging professionally at waists, the cooks settled in to work. There was much laughter, much talking back and forth, much visiting among stations as each person wanted to learn everything. They diligently peeled, chopped, blended, plucked and mixed. I prepared the grills and once the coals were ready and the gas grill was hot, we moved outside. A light breeze had come up to sweep away the summer heat, and as the mushrooms went on one grill the avocados colonized the other. As an ingredient was grilled and removed, the grill was brushed clean and on went the next, so that everything proceeded apace, from radishes and asparagus that turned golden and juicy on the gas grill, to chicken crisping to perfection over the coals, as it was swabbed with spiced mustard on a regular basis.
When all the elements for the meal were ready, we put the shortcake to bake on the grill. No one believed it could be done.
But Guess What?! It Can!!
As each element of the meal came off the grill and went where it was supposed to, I realized I not only had a fantastic group on my hands, but those recipes were just as exciting, beautiful, and easy to prepare in this context as they’d been on my grills at home.
We stood enjoying amuse-bouches, toasting each other and ourselves with rosé, then sat down to a meal that was a tribute to the season and the grill, and the infallible intuition of the newly accomplished grill cooks! It was, and is, a moment and a meal to remember!
FRENCH GRILL featured on Grill Maestro Steven Raichlen’s blog Barbecue!Bible – Take a Look!
- One 3-1/2 to 4 pound (1.75-2kg) chicken at room temperature,
- 2 tablespoons (30g) unsalted butter, melted
- fine sea salt
- teaspoon ½piment d’Espelette – or to taste
- teaspoon ½sweet paprika – or to taste
- teaspoon ¼spicy smoked paprika – or to taste
- 1/3 cup (75ml) Dijon-style mustard
- 2 tablespoons fresh bread crumbs, lightly toasted
- Flat leaf parsley or other herb sprigs – for garnish
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Turn the chicken on its breast. Using poultry shears, cut from the tail towards the neck on the right side of the backbone; you’ll need to feel your way through this, but it’s easy to do. Repeat on the other side of the backbone, remove the backbone piece and reserve it (it’s great on the grill). Flip the chicken and remove the giblets, which you can grill or use for something else. If your chicken isn’t completely flat, you can make a short vertical cut at the top of the sternum/base of the neck (this is advisable for true free-run chickens with actual tensile strength; not necessary for flabbier varieties). This will allow the chicken to lay flat.
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Carefully loosen the skin from the meat of the chicken, making an effort not to tear or poke a hole in it, by gently inserting a finger between skin and meat. Brush the meat with half the butter as evenly as you can, then pull the skin back over the meat.
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Salt the chicken all over.
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Build a fire in the grill, and when the coals are red and dusted with ash, divide them in the barbecue, putting half the coals on either side. Set the grill over the coals.
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While the grill is heating, whisk together the peppers and the mustard in a small bowl.
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Place the chicken, skin-side down, in the center of the hot grill. Cover and cook until the skin begins to turn golden, for 15 minutes (the temperature of the grill should be about 325F; 165C). If the skin isn’t golden at this point, remove the cover of the grill and move the chicken over the coals, watching it until the skin browns nicely, which will take just a few minutes.
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Flip the chicken onto the meat side, and rub the skin with 2/3 of the mustard mixture. Cover the grill and cook the chicken for 10 minutes, then flip the chicken back to the skin side. Rub the remaining mustard mixture on the meat of the chicken and sprinkle it with half the breadcrumbs, pressing them into the mustard. Shake a few drops of butter over the breadcrumbs. Cover the barbecue and grill the chicken until it is nearly cooked through, about 15 minutes. The breadcrumbs will be crisp and lightly golden Turn the chicken onto the meat side, sprinkle the skin with the remaining breadcrumbs and press them onto the chicken. Drizzle with the remaining butter. Cover and continue to cook until the breadcrumbs are golden and the meat is cooked through, an additional 10 minutes.
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Remove the chicken from the grill and place it, meat-side down, on a warmed platter. You can serve it immediately, when it’s lukewarm, or at room temperature. Garnish with herb sprigs before serving.