Spatchcock Chicken, Burrata with Peaches and Cherry Tomatoes, and a Squash Salad Worth Stealing

Summer dinners here don’t happen on paper plates, and this one especially didn’t. We ate at the dining table Jeremy built, on the banquette he also built, with placemats and cloth napkins and a vase of flowers I’d picked in Bayfield a couple days before, because you eat with your eyes first, and I want every meal on that table to feel like something, even a random Thursday. Nothing about the actual food was complicated. I just didn’t skip anything.

The centerpiece was a spatchcocked chicken from Whitney Creek Farm in Michigan. These run five to six pounds, so there’s real meat on them, not the 2-lb grocery store version. I salt it a day ahead and let it sit uncovered in the fridge, which does more for the texture than almost anything else I do to it. I find that the larger chickens really need that dry brine to break down the collagen and muscular tissue. On the day of cooking, I cut out the backbone, flatten it, rub it with olive oil and a good seasoning mix, and it cooks in about an hour instead of the better part of two. If you’ve never spatchcocked a chicken before, get yourself a good pair of kitchen shears (I swear by these) and look it up on YouTube. Once you’ve done it a couple times, it’s not that intimidating.

Everything else was sides: a same-day focaccia, a squash salad I’ve been thinking about since a trip to Door County last weekend, and a cherry tomato and burrata situation that barely qualifies as cooking.

Spatchcocked Grilled Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken, 5–6 lbs

• Kosher salt

• 2–3 tbsp olive oil

• Your favorite all-purpose seasoning or spice rub (I used What’s Gaby Cookin Chimi)

Directions

1. The day before cooking, salt the chicken generously all over and let it sit uncovered in the fridge overnight. This dries the skin and seasons the meat all the way through.

2. 45 minutes before you are set to cook the chicken, spatchcock it: cut out the backbone with kitchen shears, then flip it and press down to flatten. You could do this the day before when you salt it, but my bird was still a little frozen the day prior. Rub it all over with olive oil, then coat with your seasoning mix.

3. Pre-heat your grill over medium heat, around 400°F, skin side up first, for about an hour total. I have a fairly large grill, so I left the middle burner off and turned on the two side burners. I put the chicken in the middle so it’s cooking with indirect heat.

4. Pull it off the grill when the thigh hits 175°-185°F.

5. Let it rest 15 minutes before carving.

Same-Day Rosemary Focaccia

I use the same-day focaccia recipe from Lacey Bakes on Instagram. It’s become my go-to. Start to finish it’s about 3 to 3.5 hours, most of which is the dough doing its own thing. Here’s a link to the recipe.

Summer Squash Salad

I had a version of this at Inland Pizza in Baileys Harbor and thought it was one of the smartest salads I’ve had all summer. This is my version.

Ingredients

• 3 zucchini or summer squash, thinly sliced on a mandolin

• ½ cup pickled onions (I will share a demo of this soon! They are so great to have on hand.)

• Juice of 1 lemon

• Zest of 1 lemon

• 2–3 tbsp olive oil

• ½ cup crumbled goat cheese (I love Door County Creamery)

• Small handful of fresh basil, torn

• Small handful of fresh mint, torn

• ¼ cup toasted pine nuts

• Pinch of red pepper flakes

• ½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste

Directions

1. Toss the squash, pickled onions, lemon zest and juice, herbs, pine nuts, red pepper flakes, salt, and olive oil together.

2. Top with the goat cheese. Toss gently so the cheese doesn’t fully break down.

Toss this together right before serving for the best texture, though I ate the leftovers the next day and they were still good.

Cherry Tomato, Peach & Burrata Salad

Ingredients

• 1 pint cherry tomatoes (I used Sun Gold, yellow pear, and Super Sweet 100), halved

• 2 peaches, sliced

• 1 ball burrata

• Graza Drizzle olive oil (my go-to finishing oil)

• Baker & Olive peach white balsamic vinegar

• Fresh basil, torn

• Salt to taste

Directions

1. Arrange the tomatoes, peaches, and basil on a platter. Salt to taste (this time I used flaky salt, but kosher salt works fine too).

2. Drizzle with a 1:1 ratio of olive oil and peach white balsamic. Toss.

3. Nestle the burrata in the center and tear it open. Drizzle a little olive oil on top of the burrata, followed by a sprinkle of salt.

I hope these recipes serve as inspiration for a summer dinner. Does anyone else set the table properly for a random Thursday, or is that just me?