Rotisserie Chicken Recipe – on the BBQ

There’s nothing more delicious than this simple rotisserie chicken recipe on the BBQ. Up until now we’ve never attempted it. But nothing could be easier!

There's nothing more delicious than this rotisserie chicken recipe on the BBQ. Up until now we've never attempted it, but nothing could be easier! Birdz of a Feather | rotisserie chicken recipe | chicken on the BBQ | rotisserie chicken recipes easy | chicken on the grill | chicken on the BBQ | chicken on the grill recipes | chicken on a spit | chicken on a spit recipe | spit roasted chicken | chicken recipes rotisserie | how to rotisserie chicken | how to rotisserie chicken on grill | how to rotisserie chicken on bbq | how to rotisserie chicken recipes

Easy rotisserie chicken recipe

Since posting my chicken soup recipe last month, we’ve been inspired to explore cooking techniques that we’ve never tried. I’m going to occasionally post these culinary learnings here on Birdz of a Feather under a category we’re calling ‘The Unknown Chef’.

The Unknown Chef has always Hubs’ moniker; he coined it after graduating from culinary school many years ago when he was thinking about changing careers. The career change never happened, but I guess that’s only fitting because he’s still The Unknown Chef :). I hope our DIY culinary adventures are of interest to you too (everyone has to eat, right?).

Rotisserie Chicken Recipe

When Hubs and I were married, my parents gave us a barbecue with a rotisserie attachment as a wedding present. Since we never used the rotisserie, it subsequently got moved to their basement when we cleared out our own basement to build my craft studio and the mancave.

It almost went forgotten and we hardly gave the rotisserie a second thought. That is, until my brother-in-law mused at a mid-summer family BBQ about how he missed his old rotisserie (his former barbecue went to BBQ heaven and he doesn’t own a rotisserie now). It Hubs’ thinking that we should give our rotisserie a try.

I don’t know why it took us so long try the rotisserie! The prep time is negligible and it only take two ingredients – chicken and spice rub – to make a roasted chicken better than any restaurant. Yes, you can get fancy with herb butters, basting and injecting, but a straight up spice rub is just as delectable. More importantly, it’s fast – giving you more time to enjoy the summer weather – and of course whoever you share your chicken with 🙂

Watch Video to See How Rotisserie Chicken is Made

Learn how to attach a spit rod, balance a chicken, then cook it to perfection. Watch the video – and subscribe to Birdz of a Feather while you’re at it 🙂 You’ll find the video very helpful before you rotisserie for the first time!

Trussing for Rotisserie Chicken

The chicken we purchased came prepped with twine tied around the legs and wings, but if it didn’t we would have trussed it ourselves.

If your bird doesn’t come pre-trussed, watch the Martha Stewart video below to learn how to do it yourself to get it ready for cooking; it’s a handy thing to learn whether you’re cooking a bird indoors or out! Before you truss though, make sure you remove any giblets that may be in the cavity.

Rotisserie Chicken on the BBQ

Remove the warming rack and turn the rear burner on high. Let the BBQ heat up until the temperature is between 450 – 500 degrees Farenheit.

While the BBQ is heating up, apply the spice rub. We shook on on a ready made (and gluten free!) spice blend all over the chicken and rubbed it in. Then we skewered the chicken onto the rod, secured the two prongs into either end of the chicken (tightening the thumbscrews to keep them in place) and added the counterweight (which also gets tightened on the rod). The next step shows you step-by-step photos to set up the spit rod.

How to Assemble and Attach the Rotisserie

  1. Place the first fork on the spit rod, just past the halfway point and push it into the meat. Turn the thumbscrew and tighten it in place. 2. Add the chicken then place the second fork onto the rod and push into the meat and tighten the thumbscrew (5th picture).3. Spin the rod in your hands; the heaviest part of the chicken will fall to the bottom (second last picture).There's nothing more delicious than this rotisserie chicken recipe on the BBQ. Up until now we've never attempted it, but nothing could be easier! Birdz of a Feather | rotisserie chicken recipe | chicken on the BBQ | rotisserie chicken recipes easy | chicken on the grill | chicken on the BBQ | chicken on the grill recipes | chicken on a spit | chicken on a spit recipe | spit roasted chicken | chicken recipes rotisserie | how to rotisserie chicken | how to rotisserie chicken on grill | how to rotisserie chicken on bbq | how to rotisserie chicken recipes 4. Once you determine the heavy side of the meat, install the counterweight pointing upward (my husband kindly helped me with this part!). Tighten it onto the rod (last picture). If you have room around your sink area, another way to determine where the chicken is off-balance is to place the rod over a kitchen sink to see where the heaviest part of the bird falls.

How Assemble Rotisserie

Mount the rotisserie motor onto the bracket.

The barbecue should be good and hot! Slide the spit rod onto the brackets on either side.

We plugged the rotisserie motor into our outdoor outlet.

Then we took our chicken for an inaugural spin (as you can see in the GIF below!).

There's nothing more delicious than this rotisserie chicken recipe on the BBQ. Up until now we've never attempted it, but nothing could be easier! Birdz of a Feather | rotisserie chicken recipe | chicken on the BBQ | rotisserie chicken recipes easy | chicken on the grill | chicken on the BBQ | chicken on the grill recipes | chicken on a spit | chicken on a spit recipe | spit roasted chicken | chicken recipes rotisserie | how to rotisserie chicken | how to rotisserie chicken on grill | how to rotisserie chicken on bbq | how to rotisserie chicken recipes

Be sure to place an empty drip tray directly underneath the chicken to catch all the fat (if you skip this step you’ll end up with a greasy mess on your barbecue!).

At this point, you can pull down the cover and leave it for 15 minutes so the chicken skin crisps up.

You Spin me Right Round – Like a Rotisserie Chicken

After 15 minutes, open the BBQ lid and check the chicken. If it looks like the skin is crisping up, turn the barbecue down to medium heat to let it finish cooking on a lower setting. Then close the lid again. As you can see below, I’m having fun with a newly acquired skill – making GIFs (this is the last one, I promise)!

There's nothing more delicious than this rotisserie chicken recipe on the BBQ. Up until now we've never attempted it, but nothing could be easier! Birdz of a Feather | rotisserie chicken recipe | chicken on the BBQ | rotisserie chicken recipes easy | chicken on the grill | chicken on the BBQ | chicken on the grill recipes | chicken on a spit | chicken on a spit recipe | spit roasted chicken | chicken recipes rotisserie | how to rotisserie chicken | how to rotisserie chicken on grill | how to rotisserie chicken on bbq | how to rotisserie chicken recipes

Since I was taking pictures of the chicken with the lid open for this post, our chicken needed another 6 minutes. If it’s not quite to your liking, set a timer so you don’t forget it and check it again after another few minutes.

If you prep the rest of your meal in advance, or have some leftover side dishes, you can sit in your backyard and enjoy the fine weather while the chicken cooks. We already had some leftover rice and veggies that we just needed to heat up, so that’s exactly what we did! Take advantage of every opportunity to bask in the sunshine – especially if you live in a cold climate like we do!

How Long to Cook Rotisserie Chicken

For every pound of chicken, you should cook it for 20 minutes. Our chicken weighed 4 pounds so it needed an hour of cook time.

Set a timer for 45 minutes (since you already spent 15 minutes crisping up the skin) and then check back again when the timer goes off. In the next step, we’ll use a foolproof way to tell if the chicken is done.

Take the Temperature of That Rotisserie Chicken!

After the allotted cook time, the chicken should register at least 165 on a meat thermometer.  We cooked our chicken to 180 degrees fahrenheit; anything ranging from 165 – 180 is fine and safe to eat. We always use an instant read thermometer to test for doneness; nothing spoils a delicious dinner more than the possibility of getting food poisoning if any of the chicken is still raw. Bacteria such as E. coli, Salmonella and Campylobacter can survive in chicken that is not cooked to at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit, so I think a thermometer is a must!

When it’s done, remove the rotisserie from the barbecue and put it onto a pan. The rod, prongs and counterweight are all too hot to remove at this point so leave them alone for now.

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Take the pan inside where you’ll tent the chicken for another 10 minutes.

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Tent the Rotisserie Chicken

We bought extra wide, heavy duty foil just for this step but you can use two pieces of smaller foil overlapped if you don’t have it.

We tented the chicken loosely with a piece of foil for 10 minutes so the juices could get reabsorbed into the chicken and not run out when cut. This is an important step for succulent juicy chicken, so give it a try if you haven’t tented before!

After 10 minutes, we donned oven gloves, loosened everything holding the chicken onto the rod and then disassembled it. Lay all the pieces on a metal tray at the back of the stove to cool so no one accidentally gets burned if it’s still hot.

The Key to a Happy Marriage…

I firmly believe that one of the keys to a happy marriage is having a partner who loves the dark meat when you prefer the white!

Carve up that chicken and enjoy 🙂

Mmmm, Leftovers…. BBQ It Now and Still Enjoy It Later!

We only used half the bird for dinner so had plenty of leftovers. It was so juicy, we barely had to cut it apart – we were able to pull the leg from the carcass with ease.

We removed as much of the meat as we could, put it into a glass dish, covered it and into the fridge it went for the next day. The leftovers make a great no-cook meal when the weather is too hot to cook indoors or out; just add the cold chicken into a tossed salad and add some dressing!

We popped the remaining carcass into a zip-lock bag and removed all the air. We’ll store it in the freezer and use it later for soup.

The carcass will keep several months in the freezer; we’ll pull it out again when we have a penchant for chicken soup in the fall. The roasted meat and bones will add incredible depth of flavour to the stock. For a great chicken soup (with matzo balls!), check out my recipe here.

You really can’t beat getting three meals-for-one!

Easy Rotisserie Chicken Recipe!

I don’t know what took us so long to try a rotisserie chicken recipe, but now that we have the first one under our belts (and in our tummy) I have a feeling it’s going to be a mainstay. You literally just set it and practically forget it, but end up with a juicy, succulent and crisp-skinned bird. Nothing could be closer to perfection 🙂

Next up on The Unknown Chef, we’re making sauerkraut for the very first time! Our very first batch is fermenting away and we’ll have the results for you in the next few weeks.

If you enjoyed this rotisserie chicken recipe, please pin and share – and don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already! You can follow right here on Birdz of a Feather for more great home and garden DIY, craft projects, recipes and hacks. You can also follow us on PinterestFacebookYouTube and Instagram.

There's nothing more delicious than this rotisserie chicken recipe on the BBQ. Up until now we've never attempted it, but nothing could be easier! Birdz of a Feather | rotisserie chicken recipe | chicken on the BBQ | rotisserie chicken recipes easy | chicken on the grill | chicken on the BBQ | chicken on the grill recipes | chicken on a spit | chicken on a spit recipe | spit roasted chicken | chicken recipes rotisserie | how to rotisserie chicken | how to rotisserie chicken on grill | how to rotisserie chicken on bbq | how to rotisserie chicken recipes

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One thought on “Rotisserie Chicken Recipe – on the BBQ

  1. Pingback: Living Large in A Small House | An Incredibly Easy Chicken Breast Recipe

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