Butterflied Chicken, Ina Garten Style

I've been seeing several spatchcock chicken recipes on some of my favorite food blogs. Never heard of this? It's basically when a a whole chicken is split down the back and spreading the two halves out flat. (I don't have great knife skills with poultry, so I asked my friendly butcher to do it for me.)

Our container lemon tree-- after three years of failing to yield fruit-- has finally given us some lovely lemons. They are ready, so when I saw Ina Garten making this version on a recent episode on Food Network, I realized I had lots of fresh rosemary and lemon growing in my own backyard.

I "halved" the recipe, by using just one chicken-- this would make 4 servings, and cold chicken is fine by us as leftovers. Using simple ingredients (which is why I love Ina's recipes)-- good olive oil, kosher salt, lemon zest, lemon juice, fresh garlic and pepper, I mixed a paste. This was slipped underneath the skin.

Next, I added a couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary and some thinly sliced lemon. The chicken was folded in half and wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated for at least an hour.

Ina also grilled fresh cherry tomatoes, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with kosher salt & fresh ground pepper. Instead of using skewers, I used a grilling basket. I think this is so much easier and I don't have to worry about tomatoes slipping off or in between the grill.

We used the Weber for the chicken-- which was painless to make. 15 minutes one one side and then 15 minutes on the other. Perfection!

We bought freshly picked corn for fifty-cents each for our local, organic farm stand-- right down the road. We both love the nutty flavor of grilled corn.

The chicken was moist and flavorful-- and the rosemary and garlic was a perfect marriage with fresh lemon juice and zest. This is why Ina Garten is top on my list of favorite chefs-- simple, fresh, easy and very delicious. Next time, I'm going to add a pesto to this and I have no doubt this will take the chicken to the next level!

Ahhhhhh. Dinner for two!

For dessert-- I'm enjoying another Ina Garten recipe, but I can't post it until this Thursday as part of the Barefoot Bloggers group that I just joined. Psssssssssst. Peaches are in season!

Enjoy!