No. 108Recipe Card Posted on 4 Comments

Spatchcocked Chicken

A quicker way to cook a chicken, a spatchcocked or butterflied chicken cooks up in almost half the time as roasting a bird the traditional way – a convertible recipe for the grill or the oven that also sports your favorite marinade – plus, you get to say spatchcocked, a funny name for a great chicken routine – another Bijouxs Basics.

At the beginning of most culinary training, one is surely faced with a whole bird that requires an intricate de-boning technique, yet this simple one-two method opens up the chicken for a quicker roast or grill, which really is what most of us are looking for at home.

The term spatchcock is a traditional French term that refers to the butterflied quick cooking method used for a young chicken (you would not long roast a small bird as it would toughen). Along the way spatchcock is more commonly known as simply removing the backbone, allowing a chicken to be flattened creating a quicker cook.

Placing the chicken breast side down on a craving board, simply cut with poultry shears or a pair of kitchen shears closely along each side of the backbone (you may need to use a little muscle at the ends of the bird) removing the backbone, turn the chicken over and lay the bird out flat, removing any excess fat. There you have it, a spatchcocked chicken.

An option at this point is to marinate the chicken (or not) with your favorite blend. A Bijouxs favorite chicken is sprinkled with Herbs of Provence, the juice from two lemons cut into wedges, 3-4 large garlic cloves smashed, and a generous drizzle of olive oil, all placed in a large bowl covered or plastic bag sealed, leaving the chicken to marinate for 3-4 hours or overnight in the refrigerator.

Of course there are options for cooking the chicken.  You may cook the chicken in the oven, on the grill or my favorite, browning the chicken on the grill, getting all that great grill flavor and then finishing the cooking in the oven with even controlled heat and capturing the pan juices.

Spatchcocking is a simple, everyday technique, a Bijouxs Basics to quick cook a chicken – a little jewel with a funny name.

As always, enjoy. B

4 thoughts on “Spatchcocked Chicken

  1. Interesting word or phrase, “spatchcocked” – I definitely will try it Lynn… thanks for another GREAT idea!
    Darlene

    1. Hey Darlene- Good to hear from you! This is a great quick cook technique for chicken. I even buy the smallish birds on sale, they cook up even quicker – so much better that store bought roasted chicken.

  2. Just wanted to thank you for sharing this method of cooking poultry! It sounded so good, I used the method for cooking a 13 lb turkey for Thanksgiving! It turned out wonderfully and now I will use it for Roast Chicken! Flavorful, moist, and my turkey cooked in half the time! Lovely!

    1. Hi Wendy! Yes, you were right on to spatchcock the turkey! I always say that cooking a turkey is just cooking a big chicken. So happy you enjoyed the cooking method, it really does reduce the cooking time for poultry. Another thing you can do when you grill a butterflied chicken is to wrap a brick (regular old plain red brick) in foil and place on top of the chicken to help it stay flat to the grill, this also helps to shorten the cooking time. Great to hear from you!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.