Memorial Day Highway Chicken
What great stories you can tell about how these hens got flat
Calories per serving: 641kcal
Ingredients
- 2 Cornish hens
- Wood chips, soaked
- 1 can of beer
- Dry Rub
- Glaze
Dry Rub
- 3 Tablespoons Sea Salt
- 4 Tablespoons Black Peppercorns, freshly ground
- 4 Tablespoons Garlic Powder
- 8 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
- 4 Tablespoons Mustard Seed, ground
The Glaze
- 2 Tablespoons Honey
- 1 Tablespoon Mustard
- 1 Tablespoon *Olive Oil
Instructions
- Soak the wood chips in water at least an hour before starting up the grill.
- To get the grill started, put a drip pan filled with beer on one side of the grate, and the coals on the other. You will be cooking the birds over the drip pan.
The Rub
- If you have a small food processor, put everything in the bowl and mix thoroughly.
- If you don't have a small food processor, then put all ingredients in a non-reactive bowl and mix everything thoroughly. Break any lumps of brown sugar using the back of a spoon, or use your fingers.
- Use about 2 to 3 tablespoons of rub for every 2 pounds of chicken.
The Glaze
- Stir the glazing ingredients until you have a smooth sauce.
Flatten Birds
- Cut out the spine,
- Blot dry using paper towels,
- Fold it open and push it flat,
- Stick in two steel skewers crosswise to keep it flat,
- Use your fingers to rub the dry rub on the skin and all the crevices. Make sure that you put some in the cavity of the chicken, too.
- Put the chicken skin side down, legs facing the coals over the drip pan, and roast for a half an hour
- Turn skin side up, legs facing away from the coals, and start putting the glaze on. Glaze every five minutes or so.
- Brush the glaze on all sides of the meat during the last half hour of smoking. Make sure you cover all corners and crevices!
- Repeat mopping every five or ten minutes or so in order to build up a nice and thick layer of shiny glaze.
- You should be all done in an hour. The chicken is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 165 F / 73.8 C. Use an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh.
Notes
You can have all kinds of fun with this recipe - telling people how the chicken got so flat - got run over by a truck!
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