Grilled Butterflied Chicken with Fresh Herbs

We eat a lot of BBQ in our house and I mean a lot. That's what happens when you live in a Country that has 8 months of Winter. Any sunny day you get, you BBQ. Yes, I did just say 8 MONTHS. Here in Vancouver we mostly get rain all Winter with a few days of sunlight, if we're lucky. Where I'm originally from it's around -30 snow all winter. Either way, we get frighteningly long Winters in Canada so our grilling season is extremely coveted. Okay, glad I got that off my chest.

Moving on, I've told you before about my husband, the BBQ Assassin, as he likes to be called. He is hands down the best griller I know. So naturally when the sun starts shining again, we don't waste any time. You can smell the BBQ in the air from all around the first time it remotely warms up. Grilled chicken is one of our favorites and my herbs are growing like crazy so it was a no brainer to pair them together. We decided to go with grilling a whole chicken so here I've included instructions on butterflying the chicken. The herb recipe follows the instructions. Happy grilling!

Place the chicken so it's breast side down. Using kitchen scissors, cut straight up through the backbone in between the legs.


Turn the chicken over and place your hand in the middle of the breast. Press down in between the breast bone, put your back into it folks, until you feel the bones break.


See how's it flat? Heavily season that beauty with salt and pepper. And I do mean heavily.

Next, preheat your grill to medium heat. Place the chicken on the grill breast side down over direct heat. Grill the chicken for about 10 minutes, making sure not to burn the skin. Flip the chicken over, move to indirect heat, cover and grill another 20 minutes. Create the herb mixture by mixing any combination of herbs you have on hand (I used 2 tablespoons each cilantro, parsley and chives) with 4 tablespoons olive oil and 2 cloves chopped garlic. Brush the herb mixture all over the chicken while it is still on the grill, cover and grill another 5 minutes. The chicken is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 180 degrees fahrenheit or when the juices run clear and the meat is no longer pink. Remove the chicken from the grill and allow to rest for 10 minutes before carving.