Friday Night Charcoal Chicken

Smoky, ridiculously juicy chicken with crispy, spice-coated skin—served with warm bread, creamy hummus, fresh tabouli and enough garlic sauce to keep everyone at a distance.

This is not one of those polite dinners where everybody gets a carefully arranged plate and waits for permission to start eating.

This is charred chicken. Warm flatbread wrapped in a tea towel. Bowls of hummus, tabouli and toum spread across the table. Everyone reaching, tearing, dipping and arguing over who gets the leg.

In other words, this is exactly my kind of meal.

The Friday-night chicken I grew up with

Growing up in Western Sydney, I was absolutely spoilt when it came to Lebanese food. Great charcoal chicken was everywhere, and one restaurant in particular became part of my childhood: Habib’s in Bankstown—arguably the OG charcoal chicken shop of Sydney.

Friday night meant Habib’s.

We would go for the smoky charcoal chicken, the warm bread and, of course, that famous garlic sauce. Honestly, the chicken was brilliant, but the toum was the thing that made the meal. It was creamy, punchy and so intensely garlicky that you could still taste it the next morning. Was that a problem? Absolutely not. That was part of the experience.

Unfortunately, Habib’s is no longer around. My two boys will never get to experience those Friday dinners the way I did. Food memories are funny like that. You don’t realise how much a place means to you until it disappears.

I can’t bring Habib’s back, but I can fire up the barbecue and create my own version of Friday-night charcoal chicken at home.

Why you’ll love this recipe

• That smoky charcoal flavour is unbeatable. The warm spices, lemon and olive oil cook into the chicken while the charcoal adds the kind of deep, smoky flavour you simply cannot fake.
• The skin gets properly crispy. The chicken is cooked slowly with the skin facing up, then flip it over the heat at the end. The result is beautifully charred, spice-coated skin without drying out the meat underneath.
• The chicken is still unbelievably juicy. You will not believe how a whole chicken cooked on a barbeque can be so juicy.
• It is much easier than it looks. Butterflying the chicken helps it cook quickly and evenly. Once it is marinated and sitting under the barbecue hood, most of the hard work is already done.
• It is made for sharing. I love placing the whole chicken in the middle of the table with warm flatbread, hummus, tabouli and a dangerous amount of toum. Everyone can tear, dip and build their own plate.

Ingredients

• 1 whole free range, hormone free, chicken

For the marinade

• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 2 teaspoons sweet paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 3 tablespooms olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Chilli powder or chilli flakes, to taste (optional)

How to make charcoal butterflied chicken

1. Mix the marinade

Add the ground coriander, paprika, cumin, curry powder, cinnamon, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and optional chilli to a mixing bowl.

Give it a good stir until it turns into a loose, brick-red marinade. It should smell bright, warm and slightly earthy.

2. Butterfly the chicken

Place the chicken breast-side down on a chopping board. Using sturdy kitchen scissors, cut down both sides of the backbone and remove it. Turn the chicken over, then press firmly on the centre of the breast until you hear it crack and the bird lies flat.

3. Get that marinade everywhere

Rub the marinade all over the front and back of the chicken. Do not just give the top a quick beauty treatment and call it done. Work it around the legs, into the joints and underneath the wings. Those little hidden patches are where bland chicken likes to hide.

Cover the chicken and refrigerate it for at least 2 hours. Overnight is even better and makes tomorrow’s cooking a breeze.

Take the chicken out of the fridge about 20–30 minutes before cooking while you set up the barbecue. This takes some of the chill off, but do not leave raw chicken sitting around for ages.

4. Cook it slowly with the skin facing up

Set up your barbecue for low heat. Charcoal gives you the best smoky flavour, but you can use any barbecue with a lid or hood. Initially, place the chicken skin-side up. Close the lid and cook it for approximately 45 minutes.

I know it is tempting to keep opening the hood and checking it. Don’t. Every time you lift that lid, heat escapes and dinner moves further away. Let the barbecue do its job.

This first stage cooks the thickest parts gently while the surface of the skin dries out. Dry skin is what we want because dry skin becomes crispy skin. Wet skin becomes disappointment.

Treat 45 minutes as a checkpoint, not an unbreakable rule. A big chicken, a cool day or a barbecue with the emotional stability of a toddler can all change the cooking time.

5. Flip it and crisp the skin

After about 45 minutes, open the hood and increase the heat to medium-high. Carefully flip the chicken over with the skin side down. At this point, the chicken will be very tender, try not to tare the skin of let one of it’s beautiful legs fall off.

Cook for another 15 minutes.

When the skin is crisp, deeply coloured and releasing from the grill, check whether the chicken is cooked through.

6. Check the chicken properly

Cooking times can point you in the right direction, but the chicken is ready when the chicken is ready. Use a meat thermometer if you have one and check both the thickest part of the breast and the thigh.

Both should reach at least 74°C. Keep the thermometer away from the bone or you may get a misleading reading.

If the chicken has not reached temperature, keep cooking with the skin-side up on low-medium heat, close the hood and cook for another 5–10 minutes before checking again. There is no need to sacrifice the skin by leaving it face-down over roaring heat while the middle catches up.

7. Let it rest

Move the chicken onto a board and leave it alone for 10 minutes.

Yes, I know it smells unbelievable. Yes, somebody will hover nearby asking whether they can “just try a little piece.” Be strong.

Resting gives the juices time to settle back through the meat. Cut immediately and those juices run across the board instead of staying inside the chicken where they belong.

8. Bring everything to the table

Place the chicken onto a platter and ser it with homemade toum, smooth hummus, fresh tabouli and warm homemade flatbread or pita. Add pickles, sliced onion and lemon wedges if you like.

Then put everything in the middle of the table and let people help themselves. Tear off bread, smear it with hummus, add chicken and tabouli, then finish with far too much toum.

That is not a serving suggestion. That is the correct way to eat it.

How to tell when the chicken is cooked through

This is the part of barbecuing a whole chicken that makes people nervous. Nobody wants dry chicken, but nobody wants to discover a raw patch beside the bone either.

Here are the three ways to check it.

1. Use a meat thermometer—recommended

Push an instant-read thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh without touching the bone. Check the thickest part of the breast as well. When both reach at least 74°C, the chicken is cooked.

A thermometer removes the guesswork. More importantly, it stops us from cooking the chicken for an extra half-hour “just in case” and turning the breast into something you could use to repair a wall.

2. Check the juices

Pierce the thickest part of the thigh. The juices should run clear rather than pink or bloody.

This is a helpful backup test, but colour is not as dependable as temperature. If you cook whole chickens regularly, buy a thermometer. It is cheaper than ruining dinner.

3. Cut into the thickest section

No thermometer? Cut into the thickest part where the thigh meets the body. The meat should be opaque and steaming hot, with no raw or translucent flesh beside the bone.

Will it leave a small cut in your otherwise handsome chicken? Yes. Is that better than serving raw poultry to your family and friends? Also yes. Turn the cut side towards the bottom of the platter and carry on like nothing happened.

How to make this into a meal

Charcoal chicken is never served on it’s own. The chicken is the hero, but this meal is really about the whole table. Make sure you have these on the table along with the chicken:

Homemade toum

Homemade toum is non-negotiable for me. It is fluffy, creamy and outrageously garlicky. Spoon it onto the chicken, spread it inside the bread or eat it directly from the bowl when nobody is looking.

Smooth hummus

Homemade hummus gives you that cool, creamy contrast against the smoky chicken. I spread a generous layer over the bread before adding everything else.

Fresh tabouli

Fresh tabouli cuts through the chicken, bread and creamy dips. It makes the meal so fresh that you forget the amount of calories you just consumed.

Warm flatbread or pita

Homemade flatbread or pita holds the whole operation together. Keep it warm and covered so it stays soft enough to wrap around the chicken without splitting and dropping dinner into your lap.

Can I make this without a charcoal barbecue?

Absolutely.

Charcoal gives the chicken that unmistakable smoky flavour, so it is my first choice. However in a previous life when all I had was a gas barbeque, the lid down cooking method works just as good on a gas barbeque and those flare-ups gives you the surprisingly smokey flavours.

Enjoy 🙂 – Damo.