Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Butterflied Roast Chicken Recipe

Roast chicken is simple to make, but difficult to master.  I was tired of making picture perfect roast chicken and biting into the leg to find blood near the leg bone.  Although cooked through, it always turned me off to roasting whole chickens (in addition to cleaning the damn roasting pan - ugh!).  I read about butterflying (AKA spatchcocking) the chicken to get an even cook throughout the entire bird.  The heat distributes evenly, doesn't dry out the breast, and all of the skin surface area gets crispy (instead of just the top of the bird).  Grab your favorite spices, abandon your roasting pan (I used Pyrex this time around), and enjoy your spatchcock chicken (which was super easy to break down into 6-8 pieces).

Ingredients    

4lb - Whole Chicken
Olive Oil
Freshly Cracked Black Pepper (Coarse)
Kosher Salt
Fennel Seeds (grind them in your pepper mill with the pepper)
Cumin
Granulated Garlic
Smoked Paprika
Cayenne Pepper

1) Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  With a chef knife, run your knife down both sides of the backbone to remove it (you can save the backbone for stock or toss it).  Grab the legs and invert the chicken inside out and lay it flat.
2) Season the chicken and massage it with olive oil thoroughly.
3) Roast the chicken for an hour and a half.  Baste it constantly with a pastry brush to maintain a lacquered look (add more olive oil if there isn't enough chicken juice).
4) Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes and divide it up into easy to cut portions (leg/thigh, wings, breast).

2 comments:

Ahu Shahrabani said...

Looks great- I learned about this method in my knife skills class but have yet to try it! I will definitely give it a go next time!

hector342 said...

I'm officially converted! This will be my chicken roasting method of choice (butterflying and on pyrex). It was really easy to cut the backbone out.