Grilled Orange Chicken with Orange Cilantro Vinaigarette

Grilled Orange Chicken with Orange Cilantro Vinaigrette

Baked whole chickens are one of my favorite comfort foods - this is a new twist on the original. My father gave me this really great tool called a 'chicken sitter' that allows you to either bake or grill a whole chicken upright on top of an opening that holds any kind of liquid which steams the chicken and keeps it incredibly moist. The chicken sitter is a fancy version of the 'beer can chicken' cooking method. I prefer the ceramic ones, but metal ones are also available. You can find them at Target and several websites on line (www.barbeque-store.com). You can use them in the oven, but grilling is the best. Rub the chicken with any spices you like and fill the sitter with anything from beer, wine, water, broth or any combination. Get creative. Whole chickens are very inexpensive - 3-5 lb chicken on sale is only $5. I served the meat sliced on the pita breads (in the previous post) with an Orange Cilantro Vinaigrette. I've also coated the chicken with BBQ sauce at the end and served with Rosemary Yukon Potatoes.
origin - Willy D. (that would be my daddio!)
difficulty - simple

Grilled Orange Chicken

1 3-5 lb whole chicken (clean out the cavity and rinse in cold water)
2 oranges quartered
olive oil
1 cup chicken broth
salt/pepper to taste

Remove the zest from oranges with a microplane. Quarter the oranges and squeeze the juice into the sitter. Fill the balance of the sitter with chicken broth. Stuff the quartered oranges into the cavity of the chicken and place on the sitter. Tie the wings in close to the body of the chicken with kitchen twine so they don't burn. Rub the entire body of the chicken with olive oil , orange zest, salt and pepper. Place on medium hot grill for 1-2 hours depending on the size of the chicken (make sure it's cooked to internal temperature of 180 degrees). Take chicken off the sitter, cover with foil and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Slice and serve.

Orange Cilantro Vinaigrette

juice of one orange
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
handful of chopped cilantro
1-2 shallots chopped

Combine all ingredients in a food processor until the cilantro and shallots are relatively small and a vinaigrette forms.