Marry Myself Chicken

By Katie Barreira

In 2004, Glamour magazine printed a recipe for “Engagement Chicken,” an oven-roasted, lemony meal for two, fabled to have set wedding bells a ringin’ for a number of staffers. Since then, women across the country have reported stories of domestic bliss beginning with the nurturing flavor of an engagement chicken in the oven.

Now, the magazine has assembled a cookbook’s worth of such buzz-generating meals called, “100 Recipes every Woman Should Know,”featuring classics like the “He Stayed Over Omelet” and “Let’s Make a Baby Pasta.”

I too, believe that food and cooking can be the basis for powerful shared experiences that bring people together, foster community and communication, and yes, even express love. And I agree that young people of both genders have been done a great disservice by the kibosh on basic culinary education in public schools. A curricular omission that, compounded by an increased reliance on prepared foods and meals out, has resulted in a generation of young adults who are increasingly in the dark about how to actually cook for themselves, regardless of how many TV food shows they consume.

So, if this cookbook inspires a busy, independent gal about town to express herself in the kitchen, I won’t complain. But as a proud member of the targeted demographic who is, by profession, quite capable of landing a mate with culinary prowess, I’d just like to remind my single-woman cohorts that, just like sculpted abs, a great haircut or radiant skin, cooking is as much about feeding your soul as it is about impressing your date. You may be able to hook a man with chicken, but first, learn to cook in order to serve yourself.

Marry Myself Chicken
During my stint as a line cook, I tended to the wood-burning grill, the station responsible for churning out flocks of the restaurant’s signature favorite, Pollo al Mattone, or chicken under a brick. Nonetheless, it remains my favorite way to prepare a broiler.

Butterflying a chicken is only fiddly on the first go; then it’s a routine, 5-minute procedure that will cut your cooking time in half and make for such a moist, evenly cooked and impeccably crisped bird that salt and pepper are the only necessary adornments. One bite and you’ll fall madly in love with yourself for having prepared the admirably unadulterated dish.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken (3 to 4 pounds), butterflied (scroll down for how-to step shots!)
Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Heat grill or grill pan over medium heat. Generously season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper.

2. Spread flattened chicken on the grill, skin-side up, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Flip, cover and continue cooking until a thigh reads 165 degrees on a meat thermometer, about 20 minutes.

How to Butterfly a Chicken

1. Place the chicken, breast-side down, on a work surface and use kitchen shears to cut along either side of the backbone to remove it from the bird.

2. Open chicken like a book and locate the keel bone, the long flat-surfaced bone that divides the breast halves. Use a small, sharp knife to make a lengthwise slit through the thin membrane covering the keel bone.

3. Work your fingers underneath the widest part of the bone, then shimmy them towards the narrow end, as if opening an envelope, to separate the bone from the breast meat; then pull out the bone.

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