full of flavour.

if i had been born a chicken who unfortunately found herself on the supermarket shelves this is how i would like to go.

that's all.

grilled butterflied lemon chicken.

prepare your chicken. Remove backbone from chicken using kitchen shears or sharp knife. Place chicken, breast side down, on cutting board, with legs extended on both sides. Press firmly on sides breasts and push down to break breast bone and flatten chicken. rinse and pat dry. set aside. pour yourself a glass of wine. take a 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil - heat in pot. dice 9 cloves of garlic and place in the hot oil (not too hot) stir around for about 60 seconds - let it have a little dance and take a sip of your wine. add 1/3 cup white wine (or chicken stock) then add 1 tbsp of lemon zest and 2 tbsp of fresh lemon juice. next up add 1 1/2 tsp of dried oregano (being sure to smoosh it in your palms on the way to the pot to release the oils!) and 1 tsp of chopped fresh thyme. plus don't forget the salt!! most common thing over looked - 1 tsp.

place this marinade in a dish large enough to hold the chicken and then place the chicken breast side down in the marinade. now you can go one or two ways here - you can cook it right a way being sure to coat the chicken entirely in the marinade OR you could let them hang out together - play a little get-to-know-ya, let the goodness hidden in the marinade get deep down into the chicken. 

once the chicken is at your satisfactory fire up the grill and slap it down! place the chicken on the grill breast side down in indirect heat and place a cast iron skillet over top of the chicken to weigh it down and allow it to cook evenly. flip chicken after about 20 minutes and grill until an instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of the breast registers 165 degrees, about 20 minutes more. Transfer chicken, skin side up, to a cutting board, cover with foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes. then dig in!!!!