I wanted to share a fun twist on a whole roasted chicken, but realize that “spatchcock” is not a term everyone is familiar with. This term really just means removing the spine. Now, if you’ve never done this before it can be hard to figure out how to do – thus I made this video with the intention of making this recipe more approachable for you! This is also a really great way to do a whole chicken on the barbecue and makes for a lot of  “oooohs” and “ahhhhs” if you’re serving dinner guests.  

Spatchcock Chicken

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

1 hour

 

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken, about 3 pounds
• 1 tsp sea salt
• ⅔ cup marinade of choice
• 1 Tbl melted ghee or avocado oil
• Optional Additions:
• 1 yellow onion, sliced
• 1 Lemon, sliced into rounds

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
2. Remove the spine from the chicken (or don't).
3. Place chicken on a baking pan that is large enough that you can lay the chicken flat with the legs splayed out on the sides.
4. If using the onion and lemon, layer them on the pan under the chicken.
5. Sprinkle salt over the entire chicken, top and bottom.
6. Drizzle ⅓ cup of the marinade over the chicken, reserving the rest for later.
7. Rub the marinade over the entire chicken, top and bottom.
8. Allow to rest at room temperature for 15 minutes (or up to 2 hours in fridge).
9. Drizzle ghee/oil over top of chicken.
10. Place chicken in oven.
11. Roast chicken for 30 minutes.
12. Rotate pan and add 1-2 Tbl additional marinade over top of chicken, & baste the chicken with the juices that have collected in the pan. *I like to reserve a small amount of marinade to rub over chicken just before it comes out of oven.* Continue to roast chicken for about 20 minutes, or until a thermometer inserted into thickest part of chicken registers 165 degrees F.
13. *Please note, all ovens are different, so your cooking time may vary a little.
14. Remove chicken from oven, allow to rest 10 minutes before serving.

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