Devil’s Chicken

Devil’s chicken (Pollo Diablo) is a spatchcock chicken marinated with olive oil, lemon, chilies, and roasted in a high heat oven. Once roasted, immediately rub the chicken with butter paste made with shallow, garlic, parsley and broil it to get the charred look. You will have juicy tender chicken in every piece with lots of wonderful flavor. Check my YouTube video for tutorials.

What is a Spatchcock chicken?

To spatchcock a chicken basically means to butterfly the chicken and remove the backbone. Because a spatchcock chicken requires less time in the oven, you end up with a super juicy bird. Even the breast won’t be dry but moist.

Marinading the chicken

In order to make the chicken extra flavorful, you will want to marinade with olive oil, lemon juice, red chilies, and some herbs (if using). Marinate the chicken for at least one hour or chill in the fridge up to 24 hours. Make sure to turn the chicken around to ensure even marinading.

What’s in the butter paste?

Shallot, garlic, parsley, and butter is processed together until it forms into a paste. The butter paste makes the chicken extra moist and flavorful.

Is this devil’s chicken very spicy?

Although it has five small red chilies, the chicken roast is not spicy at all. The chilies gets mellower while roasting and adds a very gentle heat to the chicken.

What to serve with Devil’s chicken?

You can roast the potato together with the chicken to make the one dish meal. Mashed potatoes or rice pilaf would be another great choice.

Devil’s Chicken

Holly Ford

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Servings 1 whole chicken

Ingredients

  

• 3 to 3-1/2 lb whole chicken
• salt & pepper to season
• 5 small red chilies finely minced
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 3-4 sage leaves or 1 sprig rosemary
• 1 large shallot diced
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 handful parsley
• 3 tbsp butter softened
• 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

 

• Remove a backbone from chicken and cut out the top portion of beast bone. Flatten the chicken and season generously with salt and pepper. Place the chicken in a baking tray.
• Sprinkle the red chilies on the chicken and drizzle with lemon juice and olive oil. Toss to coat the chicken well.
• Add the herbs to the chicken and put the skin side up. Let it marinate for at least 1 hour. Turn the chicken over so that the skin side down after 30 minutes
• Preheat the oven to 450?F. Roast the chicken for 30 minutes turning the chicken to the other side half way through the roasting.
• Meanwhile, process shallot, garlic, parsley until finely minced. Add the butter and process again to make a paste. Season the paste with salt.
• When chicken is roasted and fully cooked, switch the oven to a broil setting. Spread the half of butter paste on the skin. Broil for 2-3 minutes. Spread again with the rest of butter paste on the chicken and broil for another 2-3 minutes or until the skin gets slightly charred but not burning the butter paste.
• Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes. Carve the chicken into pieces and serve warm.