By August in Colorado is hot and dry and the light is hard and flat and lasts until nine at night, which means the hours between dinner and sleep are long and bright and that's not ideal for a man whose brain does its worst work when there's nothing to do. I've been filling the gap with the grill. It's become a schedule — buy protein Monday or Tuesday, prep Wednesday, cook Wednesday evening, eat leftovers Thursday. The routine is stupid and small and it's keeping me upright, so I'm not going to question it.
This week: a whole chicken. The commissary had roasters for a dollar sixty-nine a pound, which is robbery in the civilian world and a miracle on military pay. I bought a four-pounder and looked at it and thought about what I had to work with: a charcoal grill with a warped grate, salt, and nothing else. No roasting pan. No oven. No herbs. Just a bird and a fire and whatever I could figure out between the two.
I spatchcocked it. That's a word that sounds made up but isn't — you cut out the backbone with shears (I used my Leatherman, which worked but required commitment) and press the bird flat so it cooks even. Dad does this with chickens on the ranch grill. You lay it flat over indirect heat, skin-side up, lid on, and you wait. Forty-five minutes. The skin renders slow, the fat drips onto the coals and sends up smoke that tastes like Sunday, and when you flip it skin-down for the last ten minutes to crisp, the sizzle is the sound of something going exactly right.
The chicken was the best thing I've cooked here. The skin was dark and crackled and the breast was juicy — spatchcocking fixes the breast-dries-out-before-thighs-finish problem, which is the only problem with roasting a whole chicken, and the solution is violence with a Leatherman and patience with a fire. I ate half of it Wednesday and the other half cold on Thursday, standing in the doorway of the barracks, pulling meat off the carcass with my fingers while the sun went down.
Dr. Mercer asked how I'm sleeping. I said the same. She asked if I'm eating. I said better. She asked what I'm cooking. I told her about the chicken and she wrote something on her pad and I said, "Are you prescribing me a chicken?" She didn't laugh. Therapists don't laugh at your jokes because they're too busy deciding what your jokes mean. My jokes mean I cooked a chicken and it was good and I'm trying to make that be enough. Some weeks that's the whole report. I cooked something. I ate it. I'm still here.
The spatchcock method is the move when you want a whole bird and you mean business — but once you’ve got the charcoal rhythm down and you’re cooking Wednesday like clockwork, foil packets are the natural next step on that same grill: sweet pineapple, sticky BBQ sauce, and chicken that steams in its own juice while the coals do the work. Same fire, less Leatherman commitment, and the kind of thing that eats well cold on Thursday when you’re standing in a doorway again.
BBQ Hawaiian Chicken Foil Packets
Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 6 oz each)
- 1 cup pineapple chunks (fresh or canned, drained)
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced into strips
- 1/2 red onion, sliced thin
- 3/4 cup BBQ sauce (your preferred brand)
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- Cooking spray or neutral oil for foil
- Fresh cilantro and sliced green onion, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Prepare the grill. Heat a charcoal grill to medium-high heat (about 400°F), banking coals to one side for indirect heat if needed. Tear four large sheets of heavy-duty aluminum foil, approximately 12 x 18 inches each, and spray the center of each with cooking spray.
- Make the sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together BBQ sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic powder, and smoked paprika until combined.
- Season the chicken. Season chicken breasts on both sides with salt and pepper. Place one breast in the center of each foil sheet.
- Build the packets. Divide pineapple chunks, bell pepper strips, and red onion evenly over the four chicken breasts. Spoon the BBQ sauce mixture generously over each, coating the chicken and vegetables.
- Seal the foil. Fold the long sides of each foil sheet up and over the chicken, then fold the ends in tightly to create a sealed packet with a little room inside for steam to circulate.
- Grill the packets. Place foil packets directly on the grill grate over indirect heat. Close the lid and cook for 22–25 minutes, until the chicken registers 165°F internally. Avoid opening packets early — the trapped steam is doing the work.
- Crisp and serve. Carefully open each packet (steam will escape fast), and if the grill is hot enough, fold back the foil and set the open packet over direct heat for 2–3 minutes to get a little char on the chicken. Garnish with cilantro and green onion if you have them. Eat straight out of the foil.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 310 | Protein: 38g | Fat: 5g | Carbs: 26g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 780mg