Spatchcocking

Matt & I are big fans of a good roast chicken.



Its just so comforting, we make it as our nice Sunday dinner quite often. Its almost always the dish I ask for when Matt offers to make me whatever I want for dinner. We've tried a few different methods of roasting a chicken; just putting it on a roasting rack & letting it go, making a tinfoil stand & turning it on its side, etc... Then we saw Alton Brown spatchcock a chicken on Good Eats & Matt decided to try that. Wow, a juicy perfectly cooked chicken with just a little preroasting prep. Cutting the bird to lie flat allows it to cook evenly, not drying out the white meat while cooking the dark. I know some people are intimidated by boning their own chicken but follow along & you'll see how easy it is...

You'll need a cutting board, good sharp knife & poultry shears.


Using the poultry shears cut along either side of the backbone removing it completely.


Turn the chicken over & lay it out. Press into the middle to break the wishbone.


Flip the chicken over again & cut the membrane holding the meat to the keel bone.


Slide your thumbs up both sides of the keel bone to loosen the meat from it.


Use your poultry shears to cut the end of the keel bone from the chicken & remove it. Save the bones you removed to make stock!


And you have a beautifully spatchcocked chicken ready to prepare how you wish. We roast it in the oven but it would be great on the grill too. Here's how we prepared this one.


We put some chopped garlic & fresh thyme under the skin. We also salted both sides of the chicken. Rub a little olive oil on the skin side of the chicken.


In our roasting pan we created a bed of vegetables, this time we used carrots, yukon gold potatoes & cauliflower. Lightly coat the vegetables with oil olive. Place the chicken skin side up on the vegetables.


Roast the chicken & vegetables at 425 for about 10 minutes per pound. Check for doneness with a thermometer. Remove the chicken from the roasting pan & let it sit for about 5 minutes before carving. Serve with the wonderfully caramelized vegetables.