I love roast chicken but sometimes it’s hard to get a whole chicken to cook evenly without paying a lot of attention. I’ve hard great luck if I bother to turn it partway through or take the time to baste it periodically, but sometimes I just want to pop it in the oven and forget about it. I’d heard about butterflying a whole chicken for more even (and faster) roasting and finally got around to trying it. It worked great! I had a 5 pound chicken so roasted it just under 2 hours. A smaller bird, about 3 pounds, should be done in about 45 minutes. Not only does it cook more evenly, but it’s easier to rub some flavoring under the skin where it can really flavor the meat rather than just the skin.
Butterflied Roast Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 tsp minced or grated lemon zest
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp fresh rosemary leaves, minced
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- juice from 1/2 a lemon
- 3-5 pound whole chicken
Instructions
- First, cut the backbone off the chicken. You can use a nice sharp knife or kitchen sheers. Then flatten it with your palms a bit. If you don’t want to make a pan sauce or gravy, line a shallow roasting pan with foil for easier cleanup. Put the chicken down on the foil. Put the back along with the neck and gizzards into a saucepan and cover with water to make broth or freeze for later.
- For the simplest preparation, pull back the skin from each leg and thigh and sprinkle with salt and pepper and maybe an herb if you’d like. I made a paste of lemon zest, garlic, fresh rosemary, salt, and pepper and used that. Loosen the skin around the breast and do the same thing. Put the skin back, then rub with olive oil or butter.
- Roast at 450 F until mostly done (30 minutes for a 3 pound chicken, more for larger). Squeeze the fresh lemon juice over the skin, then put back into the oven and cook until done.
You can also easily roast vegetables in the same pan at the same time. Toss some halved red potatoes, halved onions, chunks of carrot or whole baby carrots, and/or chunks of cauliflower with some olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put the potatoes cut side down in the pan and scatter the other vegetables around the chicken. They should be done after about 45 minutes so if you’re cooking a larger bird, like I did, just add them halfway through.
Use any leftover cooked chicken for chicken salad or burritos or fried rice or soup.
Chicken Broth
Oh, the broth. Put the chicken back, neck, and gizzards in a saucepan. Add half a carrot, half an onion, some peppercorns, and a stalk of celery or just the leaves for some extra flavor. (For more broth, just set aside the chicken parts in the refrigerator until you’re done with dinner then add the bones from the rest of the chicken to the neck, back, and gizzards. ) Cover with water and let it simmer an hour or so, let cool a bit then strain. Put in a wide mouth jar in the refrigerator overnight. The fat will rise to the surface and solidify. Scrape it off before making soup or freezing your broth for later.
Great start in butterflying the chicken but removing the breast bone is easy to do and makes this even better. see: http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/
butterflychicken.html
It may look difficult but surprisingly it isn’t.
I love roasted chicken. There is nothing like the smell of it when it is cooking.