Grilled Roast Chicken With Spinach-Ricotta Crostini

Name: Grilled Roast Chicken With Spinach-Ricotta Crostini
Total time: 5 h 30 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 2 teaspoons kosher salt, more as needed; 1/2 teaspoon black pepper; 1/4 teaspoon high-quality chile powder (ancho or New Mexican are nice); Finely grated zest of 1 lemon (save the zested lemon to juice over the crostini); 1 whole chicken (3 1/2 to 4 pounds), patted dry; Extra-virgin olive oil, as needed; 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced; 2 anchovies (optional); Pinch red pepper flakes; 1 pound mature spinach leaves, cleaned (12 cups); 1 cup chopped dill; 4 slices crusty country-style bread, 1/2-inch thick; Fresh ricotta, for serving

By Melissa Clark

Updated Feb. 28, 2024

Grilled Roast Chicken With Spinach-Ricotta Crostini — Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Total Time: 1½ hours, plus at least 4 hours' marinating
Rating: 5(352)
Comments: Read comments

This whole chicken cooked on the grill is truly a best-of-both-worlds recipe: You get the incredibly succulent meat and brittle-crisp, burnished skin of a roast chicken, combined with the deep smoky flavor of the grill. To make it, you essentially use your grill like an outdoor oven, cooking a whole splayed chicken in a skillet instead of directly on the grill grate. Splaying the bird first — that is, flattening the legs so they lay flat in the skillet — helps the dark meat cook quickly and evenly. The skillet helps to distribute the heat and captures the juices, which would otherwise incinerate in the fire. Those juices are then put to good use as a cooking medium for dill-flecked, garlicky spinach. The greens absorb all of the chicken drippings before being heaped upon ricotta-smeared crostini. Added bonus: You don’t have to worry about setting off your smoke detector. Here, the smoke stays in the grill with the bird, which is exactly where you want it.

Featured in: It’s Not Just Your Grill. It’s Your Outdoor Oven.

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings

2teaspoons kosher salt, more as needed
½teaspoon black pepper
¼teaspoon high-quality chile powder (ancho or New Mexican are nice)
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon (save the zested lemon to juice over the crostini)
1whole chicken (3½ to 4 pounds), patted dry
Extra-virgin olive oil, as needed
2garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2anchovies (optional)
Pinch red pepper flakes
1pound mature spinach leaves, cleaned (12 cups)
1cup chopped dill
4slices crusty country-style bread, ½-inch thick
Fresh ricotta, for serving

Ingredient Substitution Guide

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Preparation

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Step 1
In a small bowl, combine salt, pepper, chile powder and lemon zest. Rub the chicken inside and out with salt mixture. Place chicken on a rack set over a baking pan to catch any drips, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Step 2
Heat a gas grill, or light a charcoal grill for indirect heat (meaning pile the coals on one side of the gill, leaving the other side empty).
Step 3
Place a cast-iron skillet on the grate directly over the coals. Cover the grill, and let the pan heat up for 10 minutes.
Step 4
Remove chicken from the refrigerator. Use a sharp knife to cut the skin connecting the legs to the rest of the body. Use your hands to splay the thighs open until you feel the joint pop.
Step 5
Rub chicken with oil and place it breast side down in the hot skillet. Cover grill and cook 5 to 7 minutes, until the breast is seared and golden and easily releases from the pan.
Step 6
Using tongs and a spatula for balance, carefully flip chicken and cover the grill again. Continue cooking until the underside of the chicken is starting to brown, 10 to 20 minutes. Make sure the skin doesn’t get too dark; it will continue to brown even as it cooks over indirect heat. You’re looking for a medium golden color here, a shade or two lighter than what you ultimately want it to look like.
Step 7
Move the skillet over to the unlit side of the charcoal grill, or turn off the burners on your gas grill that are underneath the pan. Cover grill and continue to cook until the bird is cooked through, 10 to 25 minutes longer. An instant-read thermometer should register 155 degrees in the breast. You’ll need to keep your eye on the grill heat as you cook. If you’ve got a thermometer on your grill cover, you’re looking for it to be at about 450 degrees. If it falls below 400 degrees or seems as if it’s not hot enough (i.e., your chicken is cooking too slowly), add more coals or turn up your burners. Use your intuition here.
Step 8
Transfer chicken from the skillet to a cutting board, and tent with foil to rest.
Step 9
Throw garlic, anchovies (if desired) and red pepper flakes into the skillet and cook, uncovered, until the garlic starts to sizzle and turn golden, about 20 seconds. Toss in spinach and dill and cook, stirring with your tongs, until just wilted, 2 minutes longer. If the spinach isn't wilting quickly, push the pan back over the flame to direct heat. Season with salt.
Step 10
Place bread slices on grill and cook until lightly charred, about 1 minute per side.
Step 11
To serve, drizzle toasts with oil and slather with ricotta. Top with spinach mix and a little lemon juice. Serve alongside sliced chicken.

Ratings

5 out of 5

352 user ratings

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Comments

Bob Johnston7 years ago

Never rely on the built in lid thermometer. The are notoriously inaccurate and can be off as much as 50 degrees. Stick with intuition (or even better, a remote sensor thermometer) and an good instant read thermometer for final doneness of meat.

Ellie7 years ago

Seriously one of the best chickens I have made. And we sauteed spinach in the drippings. It was spectacular. Actually made me decide to save chicken fat next time I make stock or soup. Because I suspect that potatoes cooked in that fat will transport us to Paris and the chickens cooked outside the butcher shops where the potatoes at the bottom bask in the chicken drippings. YUM.

Jenn7 years ago

I can honestly say this is one of the best new recipes I've tried in quite a while. It's my new favorite way to roast a chicken. Used a charcoal grill and the timing was spot on. I also can't believe I have never made anything with spinach and dill...what a magic combiniation!
Thank you Melissa!!

SteveR2 weeks ago

My dad gave me a huge bag of spinach from his garden. Pretty cool idea to cook it in the chicken fat. I spatchcocked the chickens to get better skin contact with the cast iron griddle I used. I didn't think dill would stand up to spinach with garlic and hot pepper flakes so I used fresh oregano instead. You can really use any seasoning you have on hand for the chicken. Cooking the chickens like this takes a little longer than over open flame so use lots of charcoal.

Lynn9 months ago

I have to admit that I only used this recipe for the cooking method because I didn’t have time do the marinade. The chicken came out great. Crispy skin and juicy meat. I used a Meater thermometer to track the internal temperature and set at 165 degrees.

Paul1 year ago

Wonderful. I increased the seasoning mixture to allow for placement on top of and under the skin - a dry brine. Adding more charcoal if the grill is cooling is a hassle (messy, time needed for the coals to ignite, etc.) and unnecessary. At that stage, the chicken has been sufficiently infused with grill smoke. Taking a page from KC's grill masters, remove the pan and chicken to a preheated oven to finish roasting. That said, my Weber retained a temp of 450 throughout.

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