You've got to use a good chicken of course but the main culinary reason for doing so is that a slow grown, healthy bird will have a good amount of fat under the skin and this will ensure the end result is lovely and moist and tasty.

1/ First remove the wishbone. Pull back the skin from the neck end and using a small knife scrape away a little of the flesh to reveal the wishbone. Inserting a thumb and forefinger behind the wishbone break it away from the breastbone and pull it out. This will make the next step that bit easier.

2/ Remove the breast bone. With a sharp knife make an incision close to the breastbone all the way along and down until you reach the cavity. One of the breasts will now be completely detached from the breastbone but still attached to the rest of the bird. Now do the same to the other side of the breastbone so you have exposed the whole breastbone. You can now pull back and break or cut out the breastbone.

3/ Remove the breast bone. With a sharp knife make an incision close to the breastbone all the way along and down until you reach the cavity. One of the breasts will now be completely detached from the breastbone but still attached to the rest of the bird. Now do the same to the other side of the breastbone so you have exposed the whole breastbone. You can now pull back and break or cut out the breastbone.

4 Turn the chicken over and using either a chopping board or a meat cleaver bat out the bird until it is spread-eagled and flattened.

5/ Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and thoroughly coat the whole chicken, both sides. If you prefer the chicken without the sweet touch from the honey, simply leave it out. Leave in the fridge to marinade for an hour or two while you prepare your barbecue.

6/ If cooking on charcoal make sure you have enough to keep cooking for about one hour but not so much that you can't move it to the sides of the grill. The idea is you want indirect cooking for the majority of the time so you'll need to move the coal away from directly under the bird. If cooking on gas then after the initial searing turn the burner directly beneath the chicken completely off, leaving the others on medium to high.

7/ Once your chicken has marinaded get the barbecue to searing heat and pop the spatchcocked chicken on the grill skin side down for as minute or so to get some browning going. The move your coals or turn off your gas burner to switch to a more indirect heat and flip the chicken over so that it is skin side up. Baste the skin with the remaining marinade and close your lid.

8/ The chicken will take about 45 minutes to cook through. Baste it occasionally but make sure you leave it long enough at the end for the skin to really crisp up. Test occasionally near the end of the cooking time with a probe thermometer - you're looking for a minimum 73 degrees Celsius at the very core of the meat and once cooked remove from the grill, allow to rest for a few minutes while you prepare your plates and salad and so on.

To Serve BBQ Pepper & Chilli Chicken

Carve or serve in chunks with your choice of salad, salsa or baked spuds and barbecue beans.

Wine suggestion: A Pinot Grigio, Temparanillo, or Laverstoke Real Lager support this dish nicely.