A partially de-boned chicken is quite easy to prepare if you use a very sharp knife. The breast- and back-bones are removed so that the chicken becomes much flatter and cooking time is reduced. Marinated and barbecued, it taste very special and remains moist and succulent. Chicken prepared in this way is also good roasted in the oven.
You will need:
1 chicken - medium 1 - 2 kg
chopped herbs of your choice
½ cup cooking oil
¼ cup vinegar or lemon juice or a mixture of the two
salt and pepper
Small pinches of nutmeg, allspice and cloves (all powdered)
¼ cup tomato sauce (bottled)
¼ cup chutney or barbecue sauce
2 Tablespoons sugar, white or brown. This blends in with all the other flavors as gives the cooked meat a good color.
Method:
Preparing the chicken:
Put the chicken on a carving board
Grasp the legs and wings one by one and twist them backwards to break the joints
Cut the tips off the wing
Cut through the skin from front to back down to the back bone
Turn the knife at an angle and cut the skin and flesh off the bone
Grasp the skin with your spare hand and pull it gently away from the bone
cut in between the ribs and the breast meat, pushing the breast meat aside
Carefully cut down to the breast bone
Take care not to cut through the skin
Turn the chicken around and repeat on the other side
Carefully cut between the joints at the top of the drumsticks and the wings
Remove the carcass consisting of the breastbone with rib cavity and the back section
Marinade
Push the wings and drumsticks to the sides
Smear the marinade liberally over the inside of the chicken
Fold the wings and drumsticks inwards until the cut sections meet up.
Put the rest of the marinade into a dish that will hold the chicken snugly
Place the chicken cut side down into the marinade
Smear the exposed chicken with marinade until well covered
Cover the dish and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, mot will do no harm
Storing:
The marinated chicken can be stored in a Ziploc bag and frozen
Or later use for about a month
