This easy butterfly chicken trick will help you cut in half the time it takes to roast a chicken. It also works for turkey. Your bird will emerge from the oven golden – and your kitchen will smell amazing!
It’s Healthy Kitchen Hacks Wednesday – the day we share our favorite time-saving kitchen tricks and cooking shortcuts to help you make healthy and delicious meals.
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Now…onto today’s featured Healthy Kitchen Hack:
A QUICKER WAY TO ROAST CHICKEN (VIDEO)
This recipe is so good (and QUICK!) I promise you’ll use it all year round.
Note: This is also the fastest way to cook a turkey. I’ve done it on MORE than one occasion when I suddenly realized it didn’t have time to cook my turkey ‘whole.’ Adjust your cooking times accordingly.
The trick is to butterfly your chicken. This is also known as to “spatchcock” a chicken. By opening up the chicken to lay flat on the baking sheet, you cut the roasting time of about 90 minutes for a whole chicken, to about 45 minutes with this butterflied chicken. And, by the end, of this quick process, you can even call yourself a hipster butcher!
Here are the easy steps:
1. Place a chicken on a baking sheet. (I prepare the bird on a baking sheet to contain the chicken juices which tend to run out.) Remove the giblets from the interior of the chicken. The giblets are often contained in a small paper bag (see above). Use them in giblet recipes, or discard.
2. Turn the chicken so the backbone is facing up. (You will be able to feel the line of knobby backbones.) Cut the time in half that it takes to roast a chicken with this #HealthyKitchenHack - A QUICKER WAY TO ROAST CHICKEN via @TspCurry Click To Tweet
3. Using a pair of kitchen shears or sharp knife, cut out the backbone. This is not as tricky as it sounds. You really cannot mess it up! You will end up with a strip of backbone about 1 1/2-inches wide.
4. Flip the chicken over so the skin is up and the interior is down (see below.) Press down and flatten with the heals of your hand. (You want to hear the snapping of a few bones.) That’s it!
5. Now, to season the chicken, simply slip your fingers inside the skin of the breast and thighs to loosen. Smooth the herb/garlic mixture over the breast and thigh meat, beneath the skin. Good job! You’re now a hipster butcher, or close enough!
Quick roast the chicken as directed in the recipe below.
A Quicker Way to Roast Chicken
- Yield: 6-8 servings 1x
Description
Cut the time to roast your chicken in half by using this easy trick. Bonus: your house will smell amazing.
Ingredients
- 1 (about 4 pounds) whole chicken
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
Cut out the backbone of the chicken (see how-to instructions in above post) Use backbone to make chicken stock.
Using a microplane, zest the lemon peel off the lemon. Add zest along with the juice from half of the lemon to a small bowl; add remaining ingredients and stir well to make a lemon oregano paste.
Using your first two fingers, separate the skin from the meat by sliding your fingers between. Using your fingers, smooth the lemon oregano paste over the thigh and breast meat, beneath the skin.
Place the chicken on a clean baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
Bake the chicken in a 400-degree oven for about 45 minutes (depending on the size of your chicken), or until the thickest-meat part of the chicken measures 165-degrees (check both the breast and the thickest part of the thigh.)
To get the chicken golden, broil for 1-2 minutes after checking the internal temperature. Garnish with fresh lemons.
Notes
Either wash or use a clean baking sheet to cook the chicken. (Do not use the baking sheet you used in the above instructions to butterfly the chicken. The sheet must be clean so the juices that ran out during butterflying don’t burn.)
Would you ever try this? How can I convince you to do so? It’s so easy – really.
Dawn
Saturday 3rd of March 2018
I will have to try this trick. I use a convection oven and love that I can roast a chicken in about a hour. Cutting that time down even more would be great. I always mix seasoning in softened butter and rub it under the skin. This seasoning sounds yummy. Never thought to broil the chicken - I’ll also do that.
Serena Ball
Sunday 4th of March 2018
Hello butter. Butter is better. I will have to try the butter trick. Thanks for sharing tips from your kitchen Dawn. We love them!