Today I opened my e-mail to find a step-by-step video for preparing a butterflied chicken (HERE at Rouxbe.com).
If you have never cooked a roasted butterflied chicken before, you are in for a treat. Because for me, the only thing more perfect than a perfectly roasted chicken, is one you can cook in under an hour!
The trick to doing so is two-fold. First, the chicken is butterflied open (or “spatchcocked”) by removing it’s backbone. This creates a flattened chicken with more surface area. Second, the prepared chicken is roasted at very high heat. The outcome is a fast, fabulous, roasted chicken with the crispiest skin and juiciest meat you may ever eat.
While my recipe, as found on page 230 of Eat More of What You Love, provides simple instructions for butterflying the chicken, feel free to use the video to guide you. Once splayed open, simply season as directed, roast, and dig in! (PS This is great picnic chicken!)
Makes 4 servings
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 roasting chicken, about 4 pounds
¾ teaspoon seasoned salt
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon fresh rosemary, finely minced
¼ freshly ground black pepper or to taste
1. Preheat the oven to 450ºF. Spray the bottom of a roasting pan with cooking spray.
2. Remove giblets, rinse chicken inside and out, and pat dry. Place chicken breast side down on a cutting board, and using a sharp knife or sturdy kitchen shears, cut along both sides of the backbone to remove it. Turn the chicken over, opening the back, and press firmly on the breast with the heel of your hand to flatten the chicken. Rub the chicken with the oil, and sprinkle with seasoned salt, garlic powder, rosemary, and pepper chicken (feel free to rub some of the seasonings under the skin as well).
3. Place the chicken in the roasting pan breast side up and put it in the oven. After 30 minutes, check the chicken and cover the breast with foil if the skin is already well browned. Bake 15 more minutes or until juices run clear when pierced and thigh meat registers 175 to 180 degrees on a meat thermometer.
Note: The nutritional content for this dish varies depending on the chicken part. Three and one-half ounces of cooked breast meat (about one-half of one of the breasts) without the skin has 140 calories and 3 grams fat; one skinless thigh averages 120 calories and 5 grams fat; a leg has 100 calories and 3 grams fat; and a wing (with skin) averages 100 calories with 6 grams fat.
Nutrition Information Per Serving (3.5 ounces—average of light and dark meat) Calories 175 : Carbohydrate 0g (Sugars 0g) : Total Fat 6g (Sat Fat .5 g)Protein 28g : Fiber 0g : Cholesterol 30mg : Sodium 25mg | Food Exchanges: 3½ Lean Meat : Carbohydrate Choices: 0 | Weight Watcher Point Comparison: 4 | Smart Points 3
