Spatchcocked Chicken
This has become our favorite way to cook any bird. We have spatchcocked chicken, duck, Cornish Game Hen and turkey. When you prepare it this way everything cooks evenly and no part is dry. You can also put lots of flavoring on the meat because the skin holds it on!
A word here about what bird to choose. We have found it worth the money to go with one of the free-range birds. The first time we splurged on one we were surprised by the color of the meat and the wonderful flavor.
This recipe uses pesto to flavor the chicken. Any pesto will work. Alternately a spice blend mixed with a little oil can be rubbed onto the chicken instead.
Yield: 4 large portions
½ cup pesto
olive oil
salt and pepper
4-6 lb broiler/baker chicken
Rinse chicken and cut away the excess fat around the tail, leaving all the skin intact. Be sure to rinse the inside of the chicken and remove any giblets or other parts.
Place chicken on a plastic cutting board breast-side down. Using kitchen shears cut the ribs down one side of back bone and then the other and remove backbone. If you are working with a Turkey you might need poultry snips.
The next step is to remove the keel bone that separates the two breasts. This is the tricky part. The keel is more cartilage than bone. You can see it on the underside of the breast. It is right in the middle extends all the way between the breasts and is wider at the top.
Flatten the bird on the cutting board. Push it flat at the middle and you may hear the bones crack. This is a good thing, helping to disconnect the keel bone. Turn the chicken so the inside of the bird is up, the skin is down, and the legs are toward you. You slice through the thin membrane covering the bone, then work two fingers underneath the bone and lever it out. You may have to use the scissors to disconnect it from the attachments on the side.
Turn chicken breast-side up and spread out like a butterfly with the legs flat. Loosen the skin at the neck and the edges of the thighs. Evenly distribute the pesto under the skin.
Rub skin with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper being sure to cover evenly. Turn over and repeat on the underside.
Place the chicken, skin side up on a grill heated to between 300 and 350. Place a thermometer into the breast meat and cook until it reaches 170. (This can also be roasted in the oven with similar instructions.)
When done, the skin should be crispy and the meat tender and juicy. The chicken can easily be cut into four parts by cutting through the skin holding the two breast/wings, and two leg/thighs.
If you are doing this with a larger bird, such as a turkey, cutting through the breast bones becomes much harder and you might need a pair of boning shears or clippers.