Whole Roasted Chicken
Whole Roasted Chicken
We roast the chicken “butterflied” or “spatchcocked” to evenly cook the entire bird without drying out the breast or undercooking the thighs. It also dramatically speeds up the process of cooking the entire bird (and works for turkeys too!). You’ll also be loosening up the skin on this chicken to improve the crispiness of the skin as well. It’s a really fun recipe with lots of delicious leftovers.
Ingredients:
- 1 whole chicken, patted dry and with the giblets removed (the baggie of organs often set inside the chicken)
- Olive oil
- ~3 Tbsp. Salt
- ~1 Tbsp. Black Pepper
- 2 Tbsp. butter, optional
Equipment:
- Kitchen shears
- Rimmed baking sheet
- Aluminum foil
- Cooling rack that fits in your rimmed baking sheet
- Probe thermometer that can go in the oven
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 450F with a rack in the middle to top third, line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and set a cooling rack on top of the foil. Mix your salt and pepper in a separate bowl or ramekin to reduce the chance of cross-contamination later on.
- Remove the spine – Using kitchen shears, cut just to the side of the spine from tail to head, then repeat on the opposite side of the spine trying to get as close to the spine as possible. Save the spine in a freezer bag for making chicken stock or gravy in the future.
- Flip your chicken over so the breast meat is facing up. Position the wings and legs so they are facing out, and no longer under the chicken. Use the wide flat area of your palm to press down on the breast bone (right between the two breasts) to flatten the rib cage. You will likely hear some cracking, which is totally normal. You should now have a fairly flat chicken.
- Find where the skin ends near the neck opening and slide your finger between the skin and the breast meat. We are aiming to separate the skin from the meat, but not tear it. You can leave intact, and ignore, the extra strong membrane running down the line between the 2 breasts holding onto the skin. Repeat this process from the tail end of the chicken so most of the skin on the chicken breast is no longer attached to the meat.
- Pour some olive oil onto your chicken and rub to coat the entire top side of your chicken. Generously sprinkle your salt and pepper onto the top of your chicken and gently massage it into the meat so it sticks a bit better. Using the openings where the skin is no longer attached to the meat, sprinkle more of your salt and pepper and distribute evenly. You should have salt and pepper both above and below your chicken skin at this point. Optional: cut your 2 Tbsp. of butter into 4 pads and then place under the skin as well, with 2 near the neck end and 2 near the tail end.
- Place an instant-read probe thermometer into the thickest part of the breast near, but not touching, the bone and set the temperature alarm to 145F. Roast your chicken at 450F until your thermometer registers 145F (typically 35-45 min, but trust the thermometer over the timer). When the thermometer reads 145F take the chicken out and probe a few more areas of the chicken breast, checking to make sure nothing reads lower than 145F. If it does, leave your probe in that area and place the chicken back in the oven until it reaches 145F. Repeat until you do not get any readings in the breast less than 145F. Remove from the oven and then lightly tent with foil and allow to rest for 10-minutes. Enjoy!
