Now THAT’S A Spatchcocked Chicken!
I’ve made chicken many different ways, but never “spatchcocked”, so it was fun to discover what the process was and make a recipe using the result!
I found this photo online, credited to NatashasKitchen, which is a great visual guide!
To spatchcock a chicken, you cut and remove the backbone, then flatten the chicken by pressing down on the breastbone to make it lay flat, which allows it to cook more quickly and evenly. This technique, also called butterflying, results in a more consistent cooking temperature for both dark and white meat and produces crispier skin.
Well, I am sharing how it is done because I didn’t have to do it! A local farmers market was selling chickens “pre-spatchcocked” so while I learned how it is done, I didn’t do it myself!
With the most difficult part of the dish already done for me, I shopped the market for the best root vegetables to roast under the chicken – so let’s get cooking!
Here are the root vegetables I used:
1 Fennel bulb
1 large carrot
1/2 small butternut squash
1 medium onion
10 cloves garlic
10 small baby potatoes
1 medium red apple – yes, this is the fruit part of the dish
Note: you can also use rutabaga, sweet potato and turnip as well
I can chicken stock
olive oil, salt and pepper + dried thyme
paprika optional
In order to make sure that all the vegetables are cooked through by the time the chicken is done, chop them into equal-sized 1/2″ cubes.
Here’s how I prepped the root vegetables:
After chopping them up, I tossed the veggies with a little olive oil and some thyme, then it was time to get them ready to bake. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Here’s what I did next:
After pouring the chicken stock into a baking dish, I liberally seasoned the spatchcocked chicken with salt, pepper and thyme, then placed it on top of the root vegetables.
I roasted it for 45 minutes. Here’s what came out of the oven:
By the time it’s done, the chicken’s skin should be brown and crispy and the thickest part of the thigh should register 165° on a thermometer.
My wife Alex loves root vegetables, and they cooked well…and the chicken was indeed juicy inside and well cooked throughout.
I basically cut it in half and put one half over veggies on each plate – added a bread salad and we were done!
The bread salad was from the legendary San Francisco restaurant Zuni Cafe – here is that recipe!
I also tackled a chicken cacciatore recipe with this guy’s help!
I love Stanley Tucci’s cookbooks, food memories and his food travel series as well – here’s that recipe:
Finally, I also made a chicken fricassee thanks to this guy!
Yep, Benjamin Franklin was one of America’s “Founding Foodies” – see his recipe here!
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Categories: Bite Eat Swallow, Bite! Eat! Repeat!, Cookbooks, Eat This!, Fine Dining, Food, Food Pictures, Food Writing, Recipes, Wacky Food, World's Wildest Food
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This looks great. I would also buy the chicken prepared.
Yes, I’d never seen them for sale already done for you – which was nice! You would love the Union Square Farmers Market, it has 40+ booths and all of it grown or harvested in upstate New York or New Jersey…really fun
Sounds terrific
Spatchcocked chicken is the way to go, been doing it for years. Very easy process if you have a good pair of kitchen shears. I am actually doing one tonight, with veggies underneath to catch all that good chicken smaltz!
yes that’s the way to do it! I will actually do the process to teach myself, but in this case it was done and I wasn’t going to argue! Thanks for the comment!
Well, yes, this time I am ahead of you. I don’t often roast or bake chicken using it more in SE and S Indian and Middle-Eastern styles, but the faster cooking method led me to learn how to butterfly the bird quite some time ago – it is quite easy and fool-proof and I would not pay the extra money to have it done for me. For me the same goes for minced meats – do it at home! Am smiling – Alex and I seem to have very much the same food tastes . . . i love root vegetables . . .
I’ve never made it this way, but have eaten it prepared this way, and it’s very moist and delicious
This is my husband’s favorite way to eat roast chicken.
Never prepared chicken this way! Will give it a try. Don’t you risk losing/damaging the two oysters by cutting out the backbone?
That’s a great point…I should have mentioned that most recipes call for you to remove them beforehand to be sure you don’t tear them
Thanks, that’s helpful!