Cooking a whole chicken can seem intimidating if you’ve never tried it, but I promise that it’s actually one of the easiest ways to prep a whole bird and still create an incredibly impressive meal for your family, a special date night, or any other occasion (including my favorite… random weeknight roasted chicken).
I’ve coveted and mastered many ways to cook a bird over the last several years both on and off the grill. You can read more about making a homemade rotisserie chicken or the best grilled chicken as well, but this is one of my favorite go-to methods because it’s easy, delicious, and incredibly versatile.
Why even use this technique when you can roast the whole bird as is? Because it allows you to cook an entire chicken (or even a turkey) much faster because it lays flat and open while cooking. This not only saves you time, but also helps the skin get brown and crisp!
Use this as a guide to successfully walk you through how to prep a spatchcock or butterflied chicken that can be roasted in the oven or smoked and cooked on a grill.
Be sure to cut as close to spine as possible so you do not remove excess meat. Remove the backbone and discard or save it to make homemade stock. Flip the chicken over so that it’s skin-side and breast-side up and firmly press down on the breast of the chicken to flatten it until you hear a small crack.
Other general roasting and grilling tips for cooking:
- If you’re cooking your chicken using either method and you notice the smaller, thinner areas of the chicken are browning too quickly (i.e. the wings and wing tips), loosely cover those areas with foil to help prevent it from getting too brown.
- Be sure to cook your chicken to a food-safe temperature of at least 165 F. Be sure to use a good thermometer to measure the thickest part of the chicken (which is the chicken thigh) to register the final cooking temp.
- Use lighter wood varieties for smoking on the grill so you don’t overpower the chicken with smoke flavor.
- Elevate the chicken on a baking sheet with a cooling rack to help spread heat both above the chicken and under it to allow for even cooking.
- After removing your cooked chicken, allow it to rest for 15 to 20 minutes to allow the juices to settle
How do you get a butterflied chicken to lay flat?
One tip some people often forget is that to get the bird to lay flat for even backing, you need to place its breast side up again and apply pressure to crack the breast bones. I usually grab behind the breast bone use my body weight and push down. The chicken will crack slightly and release and lay flat on your baking pan.
Do you have to flip Spatchcock chicken?
FAQ
What is the downside of spatchcock?
How much to reduce cooking time for spatchcock chicken?
Do you use direct or indirect for Spatchcock chicken?