Wednesday, October 14, 2009

With Thanks to Pam at Sidewalk Shoes...

...who has given my husband and 24 year old son another reason to shake their heads at me.

Spatchcock, n. A chicken split in preparation for cooking on the grill.

Spatchcock, v. To split a chicken along the backbone, and flatten out, in preparation for cooking on the grill or by other methods.


(And you wouldn't believe the size of the dictionary I needed to find these definitions.)

So, last night I took my trusty new kitchen shears and started cutting along the spine of my oven stuffer roaster, in order to be able to use one of Pam's new favorite words. My husband ordered my son to take the shears from me and finish the cutting under my supervision, since he's almost twice my size. (Oh, yeah, my feeling were so hurt. You're not stronger than a 24 year old man with enormous hands. Boo Hoo.) My chicken was still partially frozen, so this seemed the logical way to cook it efficiently. So, after Patrick spatchcocked that sucker, I rinsed th
e inside and coated it with sea salt, garlic powder and poultry seasoning. Turned over, the chicken was treated to finely minced onion under the skin, lemon juice squeezed over top, and another fine coating of garlic powder and poultry seasoning.

I roasted this in the oven for two reasons: One, I don't grill. You all know that I have an aversion to black lines on my food, so we needn't go back to that, right? Two, it was 41 freakin' degrees out last night, and I wanted my oven running. Actually, I wanted both running. Chicken, bread, brownies, butternut squash, Cornish Treacle Tart, a veritable smorgasbord of oven cooked wonderment. Anyway, this was the end result of my roasted spatchcock:

Best of all, for pernicious folks like me (translation: really cheap, although I prefer "thrifty"), there was almost no meat left stuck to the ribcage, and, therefore, less waste. Excellent! And since I had just about 2 tiny pieces of chicken left over, you know this had fine flavor, too.

13 comments:

Paula said...

That is one big bird! I bet it smelled great, too, as it roasted. This is a terrific idea. Now I need to borrow your son to cut my birds.

Hey, have you ever made chicken broth in the oven? I remember seeing a recipe last year where a lady used a left over carcass, plus carrots, onions, celery, etc., popped it in the oven, and hours later had baked chicken broth. I've never used a carcass, but it could be a great way to have poached chicken to use in other stuff not to mention getting some awesome broth! We'd have to come up with a new word for it. Roasted Spatchbroth?

By the way, don't think you can get away with mentioning stuff like treacle tart and then not posting the recipe. :-)

gMarie said...

Okay - quick! go edit your post you say that covered the outside in semon - pretty sure you meant Lemon!

Looks good other than that. Sorry your boys insulted you. g

veedogknitter said...

That went from heinous looking prior to cooking, to delectable looking!!

The Blonde Duck said...

I am also cheap (and proud of it!) This looks like a fabulous chicken!

Robynn's Ravings said...

MAN does that LOOK YUMMY! And the whole menu made me want to eat with you! But seriously? No black lines on your food? I don't know why but I LOVE that! lol

I'm gettin' ready to toss Paula's oven dried tomatoes into cappelini with meatballs after our bike ride to the store. It's GORGEOUS here in CA. Just poured and the air is clear and there are HUGE clouds. I feel giddy!

Tobi said...

Looks like a nice skin on that chicken that was cooked in the Spatchcock method.

Lo said...

Oh, yeah -- if you spatchcock me a bird I will come a'runnin'. Great way to cook. Frugal... but (most importantly) delicious.

Spatchbroth -- heh. Leave it to Paula.

Mickle in NZ said...

There's nothing wrong with being frugal, especially if you've four hungry males to feed. No leftovers for darling Thor though.

Spatchcocking a chicken means it also cooks faster.

(Paula - I always used the carcass from roast chicken for broth. The flavour is great and it's extra frugal. I even freeze the carcass until I have a couple or more)

tavolini said...

Good looking chicken!! I'm glad you had someone to help spatchcock (that's definitely a new word for me!)

41 degrees!! Brrr...you guys have had a chilly summer and an early fall!

grace said...

i chuckle every time pam spatchcocks a chicken, and now i'll be chuckling with you, too. also, three cheers for your usage of pernicious--what a great word. :)

SissySees said...

Oh, I love new words! I'm not much on chicken though, so I'll just enjoy expanding my vocabulary.

Pam said...

I still have never done this with a chicken. It's on my "must do" list. Looks great Marjie.

pam said...

Yay! Another one on the spatchocking bandwagon.