Recipe for Chicken Flattie

Turning a whole chicken into a quicker-cooking version for kettle-braai roasting, is easy once you know how. Left in a piquant marinade overnight before cooking, makes it extra-special!

Ingredients(8-10)

2 whole chickens

1 can ginger beer

200 ml SPAR mango chutney

250 ml SPAR creamy mayonnaise

1 medium onion

1 bunch fresh coriander

10 ml fresh ginger & garlic mix

salt and black pepper to season

Method

Using kitchen scissors, cut down one side of the backbone, from the “Pope’s Nose” end to the far neck end. Repeat this up the same length but on the adjoining side of the backbone. Discard the backbone strip you have just cut out.

Turn the chicken over with the newly opened side facing down on the board.

Press down hard on the chest of the chicken, to hear the bone snap and chicken collapses flat.

Rinse the carcass inside surfaces and wipe dry with kitchen paper towel. Place each chicken in a shallow sealed container. Rub the skin all over with salt and ground black pepper.

Combine the marinade ingredients, and pour the sauce evenly over both chickens. Refrigerate and chickens in the marinade every few hours.

Cook the chickens together over an indirect-heat method of kettle-braai cooking. Allow 45 minutes, then test by inserting a skewer into thick thigh sections, to ensure clear juices escape, which will mean the chickens are cooked through sufficiently.

Hints and Tips

Pour the leftover marinade into a saucepan. Stir in a paste of 20 ml corn flour mixed with a little cold water. Bring to the boil, stirring over low heat, until thickened. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Serve with the chicken.

The initial refrigerated chicken marinade time should not exceed 2 days, for reasons of food safety.

Two metal kebab skewers inserted into the sides of each chicken makes lifting during cooking easier.

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