Lump charcoal and fire

How to grill young chicken (galeto)

Whole young chicken on the grill (galeto)

Galeto series

Young chicken (galeto) is cooked over fire, and in Rio Grande do Sul it is a category of restaurant, not just a dish. The galeto al primo canto tradition of the Serra Gaucha, built by Italian immigrant families around Caxias do Sul, serves small birds on spits with polenta and a rotation of sides. It is worth cooking at home and it is nothing like cooking picanha.

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Safety instructions

Cook chicken to 165°F (74°C) in the thickest part of the thigh, checked with an instant-read thermometer. Buy air-chilled birds when you can. Higher-risk people wait for 165°F (74°C).

What young chicken (galeto) means

A galeto is a young, small chicken, traditionally slaughtered very young, hence the phrase al primo canto, at its first crow. The birds are small, which is the point: a small bird cooks through quickly over fire without the outside drying out, and it goes on a spit whole or butterflied.

When you go to the meat case, look for a Cornish hen or poussin, roughly 1 to 1 1/2 pounds each, which is the closest match. Failing that, the smallest whole broiler you can find, around 2 1/2 to 3 pounds, butterflied. A large 5 pound roaster is the wrong bird for this method.

Buy air-chilled

Buy air-chilled chicken for galeto. It skips the US water-chill tank, holds less water, and browns better over embers. Look for “air chilled” on the label.

Chicken is not beef

Beef at a churrasco is salt only. Galeto is marinated: garlic, salt, and acid, with white wine or lime the two common choices, sometimes oregano or parsley and a little olive oil. Chicken has less of its own flavor than beef and gains from the marinade in a way picanha does not.

Ingredients (2 small birds)

  • 2 small birds (Cornish hen or poussin, roughly 1 to 1 1/2 pounds each)
  • 8 to 10 cloves garlic, minced fine
  • 1 tablespoon coarse salt
  • the juice of two limes or 1/2 cup (120 ml) dry white wine
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon (5 ml) dried oregano
  • black pepper

Method

  1. Mash the garlic and salt together into a paste before adding the liquid. It distributes better that way.
  2. Marinate 4 to 12 hours in the refrigerator, turning once. Stop a lime-based marinade around 12 hours. Longer and the acid makes the surface chalky. Wine is more forgiving than lime.
  3. Pull the birds out and pat them dry before cooking. Wet skin steams and will not brown.

Butterflying

  1. Unless you have a rotisserie, butterfly the bird. Put it breast down, cut along both sides of the backbone with shears, remove the backbone, flip it over, and press firmly on the breastbone until it lies flat.

A flat bird cooks evenly, which is the entire problem with grilling chicken. It also lets you keep the whole thing skin-up over indirect heat for most of the cook.

On a spit

  1. If you have a rotisserie attachment or long skewers over a churrasqueira, run the skewer through the bird lengthwise and secure it so it does not spin free.
  2. Hold it well above the embers, farther out than you would for beef, because chicken needs a longer cook at a lower intensity.
  3. Hang it about 25 cm (10 in) from the embers. If you last about 7 seconds with your hand at that height, the heat is right (hand test).
  4. Turn steadily and baste with the leftover marinade for the first two thirds of the cook, then stop so the surface can dry and brown.
  5. If you baste at the end, use marinade that has not held raw chicken, or boil it first. Either stop early or boil the marinade first.

On a kettle grill

  1. Two-zone fire. Coals banked to one side, nothing on the other. Start the butterflied bird skin side up on the cool side with the lid on, vents open, for about 25 to 35 minutes depending on size.
  2. When the thigh is approaching temperature, move the bird skin side down over the coals for three to five minutes to crisp the skin. Watch it, because rendering skin fat over coals flares quickly. If flames touch the skin, move it back to the cool side.
  3. Cook to 165°F (74°C) measured in the thickest part of the thigh, not touching bone, with an instant-read thermometer. The breast will read higher and that is fine. Chicken is one of the few things at a churrasco you cook fully.

How you know it’s done

The juices run clear at the thigh joint and a thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh, not touching bone, reads 165°F (74°C). The breast reads higher and that is fine.

Make ahead

Marinate 4 to 12 hours in the refrigerator, turning once. Stop a lime-based marinade around 12 hours.

Resting and serving

Rest 10 minutes on a cutting board, then cut into quarters or eighths with shears. Serve with polenta first, then a simple salad and Brazilian tomato-onion sauce (vinagrete). Half a small bird per adult is a portion.

If you do not have a small whole bird, cookchicken thighs and drumsticks (coxas e sobrecoxas) orchicken skewers (espetinho de frango).

What to buy

Shears to quarter the bird, a thermometer so the thigh hits 165°F (74°C). The fire kit is on What to buy.

Next cooks

Region: Sul.

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