Grilled Half Chicken

Get ready to sink your teeth into the moist amazing grilled chicken you will serve up at your next cookout! Serve this with or without sauce for tender and juicy meat.

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 50 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Servings servings

Calories 376kcal

Author Jason

Equipment

Grill
Small sauce pan
grill brush
Poultry Shears

Ingredients

Half Chicken

1 whole Chicken cut in half

Teriyaki BBQ Sauce

½ cup Honey
¾ cup BBQ Sauce we used Sweet Baby Ray's
½ cup Molasses
¼ cup Teriyaki Sauce
⅛ cup Soy Sauce
3 cloves Garlic
2 tbsp Dried Onions

Instructions

Making the Teriyaki BBQ Sauce

Add all the ingredients into a small pot and bring to a boil. Stir to make sure it is well combined.
Once it comes to a full boil, stir and reduce heat to low, medium and allow to simmer for 15 minutes. Allow to cool off the heat and the sauce will thicken while it cools and become sticky. **This is even better the next day if you have the opportunity to make it ahead.**

Grilling the Half Chicken

With a sturdy, sharp knife, cut through the cartilage to one side of the breast bone. You'll feel it when the knife cuts through.
Open up the chicken and cut through one side of the spine. It is easier to do this from the inside of the bird. If you have poultry shears, you might find using that easier.
Liberally coat both sides of the chicken halves with a BBQ dry rub.
Set up the grill for indirect heat to 350-400 degrees. **Remember if it's too hot the inside will not cook while the outside will overcook.**
Place the two half chickens skin side down and let it cook for 20 minutes.
Turn them over and cook with the skin side up for another 20 minutes.
When the chickens near 165 degrees, brush the BBQ sauce on both sides and let it finish cooking. Remove when the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.
Allow to rest for 10-15 minutes before cutting into it to allow the juices to stay inside the chicken.

Notes

Sauce: If you can, make the sauce the day before. It thickens up so nice in the refrigerator and becomes sticky and delicious.

Cutting Chicken: Two different ways to cut this one will work great for the grill. Cutting down one side of the backbone leaving the center of the backbone on one side. The second way to do this is to cut out the backbone entirely which means cutting down the backbone on both sides like you do for a butterflied/ spatchcocked chicken.

Temperature Matters: It's very important to have the right grill temperature! Remember if it's too hot the inside will not cook while the outside will overcook.

Make-Ahead Sauce: Make the teriyaki bbq sauce the day before you need it for a perfectly sticky sauce with great flavor. This is one of those sauces that gets better with age, so if you have time to make it the day before, go for it! It thickens up so nicely in the refrigerator and becomes sticky and delicious.

Storage: Raw chicken should be kept in the refrigerator and used within one to two days of purchase. Grilled half chicken should be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator and will keep for two or three days. You have two choices. You could cut the chicken into pieces and keep them on the bone for reheating to use for lunches. Alternatively, you might cut the chicken off the bone and dice it up so that it is easy to use in future recipes.

Meal Prep:

Cutting chicken in half is easy when you follow the simple steps on our recipe card. Make sure you have a sharp knife or kitchen shears. You can cut the chicken in half as soon as you purchase it so that it is ready to grill when you come home from work. Make sure to keep the cut chicken halves in a sealed plastic bag in your refrigerator.

If removed from the bone, grilled half chicken can be frozen in freezer-safe baggies or containers and used in future recipes such as tacos, rice bowls, salads, quesadillas, or soups. It will keep for up to three months in the freezer.

It can also be cooked over the weekend and used for quick lunchbox meals.

Internal Temperature of Chicken: Your chicken should be cooked to 165º F internally and allowed to rest off the heat so the temperature goes up even more without drying out the meat.

Temperature of Grill: It should be between 350º and 400ºF. Not too hot, as it will dry out the meat if cooked too fast.

Nutrition