You are going to need a chicken around 3 lbs or 1.5 kg. It will likely take about ten minutes preparation or less depending on knife skills and about an hour cooking time. Preparation is going to be fast so personally; I start with turning on the oven before preparing. Set the temperature around 400ºF, 425ºF if you want to cook faster.
Spatchcocking a chicken involves removing the backbone and flattening the chicken to a more consistent thickness, this allows for faster cooking times, and crispier skin.
Preparing the Chicken (AI)
• Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, then position it breast-side down on a cutting board.
• Use kitchen shears to cut along both sides of the spine, removing it completely. Reserve the backbone for homemade chicken stock or pan jus.
• Flip the chicken over and press down on the breastbone to flatten it.
Preparing the Chicken (my way)
• Use a cleaver and cut the backbone on the tail end of the bird, use one hand to steady the cleaver and use your other hand to give it a whack on the dull side of the blade. We are not trying to remove the backbone; it is not necessary unless you want to harvest it for soup stock, but that backbone will have so much more flavour after roasting.
• Stand the bird up on the neck opening and place the cleaver at the incision that you just made. A small amount of pressure will glide the blade to the other end of the bird.
• Place the bird on the cutting board skin side up, pull open the backside slightly to facilitate flattening of the bird. Apply pressure to the breastbone of the bird as if you were giving it CPR, this will break some of the rib bones to allow the bird to be flattened. Arrange the thighs and legs to allow for even browning of the skin.
Seasoning
1. Flip the bird over, skin side down. Sprinkle evenly over the inside of the bird the following:
• 2 teaspoons of garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons of onion powder
• 2 teaspoons of five spice powder (can be found in any Asian grocery store – common barbecue spice)
• 2 teaspoons of sea salt or season salt
• You may need to rub the seasoning to get more even distribution as five spice powder tends to clump.
2. Flip the bird over, skin side up.
3. Drizzle some fat over the skin of the bird, melted butter or expressed sunflower oil. Manufactured seed oil is not so good for you. Olive and avocado oil are always good, but I don’t like using it in high heat. Rub the oil to give even coverage. Oil allows the skin to crisp rather than burn.
4. Sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of season salt. I prefer season salt as it gives it nice colour to the final product and tastes good as well.
Cooking
1. Put the bird on a flat pan lined with parchment paper. Arrange the bird nicely with even exposure to the heat. You can do a single pan meal by surrounding the bird with some vegetables.
2. Stick the bird in the oven.
3. I would do 30 minutes with the skin side up for even browning. Flip over for 20 minutes with skin side down – don’t leave it longer as five spice powder can burn. Flip back to skin side up for the last 10 minutes to finish. You can also do nothing, and it will still come out pretty good.
4. Internal temperature should reach 165ºF (74ºC) in the thickest part of the bird.
5. Take the bird out of the oven and rest for 10 minutes before serving.
This is the first time that I have noted how this was done as I typically don’t follow a recipe to the letter. In my humble opinion, it was better than store-bought, ready-to-eat chicken. Typically, our family finishes 60 to 70% of a Costco chicken in one sitting. Being a bigger bird, I was surprised after leaving half the bird ready for dinner on the table for 10 minutes, 95% was consumed. (Recovering for a cold). End result, 90% of the whole bird was consumed which is always a sign of a success.
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