Healthier French Style BBQ

Everyone wants to eat healthier these days but there’s always some new cooking hack that somehow bends the rules. Now grilling BBQ dishes can be packed with flavor that usually comes from sauces and fatty rendered meats, but here’s one method you’ll be happy to hear is actually healthy for you.

Finally, a French-style BBQ to cheer about

Chicken wings on grill

Harry Eastwood might have cornered the market on healthy French alternative cuisine and does have great meat recipes in her best-seller cookbook “Carneval”. But when it comes to cooking the best BBQ dishes that actually taste good, you might be scratching your head. We’ve found one such recipe that will change your mind about eating healthy with a grill chicken recipe that gives French BBQ a run for the money.

The real secret here is selecting your chicken that fits the bill for getting the best flavor here is to choose a free-range chicken. The tougher the bird you can find -the better. The whole secret here is that free-range organic birds are stronger and will have more muscle mass. You want a chicken that can run a marathon rather than the farm-bred birds raised in chicken mills.

Chickens BBQ recipe

French Style Healthy BBQ Chicken

Free-range chickens eat everything they can find including bugs, grass, and anything they can get a hold of. Because their meat has become so dense, the cooking time is increased which gives you a perfect excuse to slow-cook your bird on the grill. Add just the right amount of stuffing inside and you can take the toughness out of the picture right away. You also want to have a BBQ grill that is set up to smoke if you want added smoky flavor.
Course Main Course
Cuisine French
Servings 1 Chicken

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Whole free-Range Chicken (1.5 to 2lbs)

Stuffing ingredients

  • 1 Tablespoon olive oil (yourchoice) (your choice)
  • 200 Grams Wild mushrooms (girolles, ceps, or chanterelles) rough chop in small bits
  • 1 lemon (freshly squeezed for the juice)
  • 2 Tablespoon fresh parsley (finely chopped)
  • 1 Small Amount of lemongrass (thinly diced)
  • 2 Tablespoons Fresh tarragon (finely chopped)
  • 2 Garlic cloves (peeled and finely minced)
  • 2 Slices Prosciutto (finely chopped)
  • 1 Tablespoon Crème Fraîche (half fat)
  • Salt and pepper (to taste)

Instructions
 

  • Prepping your stuffing
    About the time you get everything ready prepared, you'll need to ready your BBQ grill for grilling. Start with a good selection of pure charcoal that will give the chicken a great flavor. Apple and cherry wood are good choices but don't forget that maple also gives a sweeter BBQ taste you might enjoy if you aren't into smoky flavors. You'll need to take a large griddle and heat it up on your grill.
    Add your olive oil, and once the griddle is nice and hot, now add your mushrooms and fry them until they get golden brown. After this, you put these mushrooms aside into a large bowl along with all of the stuffing ingredients. After everything is mixed in your stuffing, add the salt and pepper last to get just the right taste. The next step is prepping your chicken.
  • Stretching the skin
    Unlike stuffing a turkey, you're going to loosen all of the skin on your chicken so you can separate it from the meat underneath. This will take a bit of care because you don't want to get any holes in your skin. Working your fingers under any spot all over your bird is best all the way down the legs and around the breasts. The next step is tricky but you need to stuff your stuffing full of the mushroom stuffing mixture.
    It doesn't need to be more than inch all around for slow cooking. Tie off the legs if they're not sitting too far from the body. You also want to tie off any loose skin with cooking twine where the neck used to be. The next step is to put your chicken into a shallow baking tray and place this into your BBQ grill. Don't worry about covering your chicken, the first 40 minutes is essential to let it sit in the liquid that collects.
  • Creating a basting sauce from the liquid
    After you've let your chicken cook in the BBQ grill for 40minutes, you remove the chicken from the baking tray and carefully put it onto the indirect heating area of your grill. The leftover liquid is then simmered down with a touch of sugar to help it thicken up easier. This can be used as a glaze that you apply every 10 minutes to get a glaze on your chicken skin. When the internal temperature of your chicken reaches 165 degrees, it's done.
    After a total of 60 to 90 minutes in the grill, the glaze will help prevent your stuffing from totally drying out and keep the meat nice and tender. When you're ready, place the chicken on a cutting board and separate the legs and meaty pieces onto waiting for serving plates. Serve with any low-calorie side dish you like. Enjoy!
Keyword chicken, healthy bbq,

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