Dinner at Don's

My buddy Don and I have been tight ever since we met in 9th grade band while learning to play the tuba. Well, congratulations to him, he recently purchased his first home. It is in Santa Rosa about 6 miles from where I live, and we have some great cookouts there.

Tonight my brother from another mother, Brandon, and I are going over to have dinner with him and his girlfriend, Nicole. Tonight we are keeping it pretty simple with Italian sausages and fresh pasta (I'll post photos later), but I got to thinking about our last meal, which was dyn-O-mite!!!

I'm about to make this plate of food disappear!!!

The meal:

• Grilled whole chicken
• Grilled corn on the cob
• Steamed broccoli with lemon

The broccoli and corn are obviously cooked the way we listed, but I gave the chicken a little more attention than the vegetables.

1. Using a whole chicken, I cut the spine out and laid the chicken flat on the cutting board. 

2. Once flat with the ribs down, I pressed down firmly on the breast bone, thereby breaking the sternum and some ribs, enabling the chicken to lay flat.

3. I seasoned the chicken both before and during cooking with a flavored oil of:

• lemon-infused olive oil
• fresh garlic, finely minced
• fresh rosemary, roughly chopped
• kosher salt
• fresh-cracked black pepper

4. I grilled the chicken skin side down until crispy, then I flipped it and grilled over medium heat until done. Boom.

Here are some chicken in-progress photos: