Best Moist Roast Chicken Butterflied Recipes

ROASTED SPATCHCOCK CHICKEN (BUTTERFLIED CHICKEN)

Steps:

• Pat dry the whole chicken completely dry with a paper towel before adding seasoning. This helps create extra crispy skin when roasting.
• Place chicken breast-side down on a clean and dry chopping board (wearing disposable gloves helps with easy handling).
• Cut along the backbone in the middle with kitchen scissors and remove the backbone, which is about 1-inch wide.
• Make a small cut with a knife along the white cartilage that connects the breastbone and remove the breastbone by pulling it out through the cut.
• Turn the chicken over with the breast-side up and flatten it out . Tuck the wings under the chicken breasts.
• Pat dry the spatchcock chicken again to remove any excess liquid.
• In a small bowl, stir together one tablespoon olive oil, salt and pepper, until combined.
• Generously smear the seasoning mixture over the whole chicken inside and out and let it rest on a clean plate for at least 15 minutes. Make sure the seasoning covers the entire whole chicken including the inside cavity.
• Preheat the oven to 450F.
• Heat a cast-iron skillet on the stove for 5 minutes over medium high heat (or preheat the iron skillet in the oven for 5 minutes). Once the skillet is sizzling hot, sear the chicken by placing chicken breast side down in the hot skillet for 3-5 minutes, until skin gets a little crispy.
• Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake the chicken for 30 minutes until the skin on the breasts turns brown. You can add an oven-safe weight over the chicken such as a Dutch oven lid to promote browning.
• Remove the skillet from the oven and turn the chicken over with the breast side up. Tuck whole garlic cloves and sprigs of rosemary and thyme underneath the chicken to add flavour.
• Combine the remaining oil, chopped thyme and minced garlic in a small bowl and brush the seasoning mixture over the chicken breasts.
• Transfer the skillet back into the oven and continue to bake the chicken for another 10 minutes until the internal temperature reaches 165F.
• Remove the chicken from oven and place it on a large plate. Let the chicken rest for 15 minutes. Then, carve and serve.

MOIST ROAST CHICKEN (BUTTERFLIED)

Steps:

• 1. HINT 1: Watch the video at http://virtualweberbullet.com/butterflychicken.html to totally de-mystify how to butterfly poultry. HINT 2: Washing a chicken before cooking has become controversial. Recent recommendations are not to wash the chicken because the splash of germs around the sink is more dangerous than cooking an unwashed chicken.
• 2. Hint 2: You will need strong scissors and/or a strong, serrated knife the cut the chicken. A good steak knife will work if you have nothing else to hand. If you are doing a large turkey, you may need a cleaver, clean pruning shears and/or a hacksaw.
• 3. In a large roasting pan, form a bed of whole or roughly chopped vegetables to act as a rack. The steam from the cooking vegetables will provide moisture for the chicken. They are good (though perhaps greasy) eaten as a side dish and add flavor when used in making stock. Suggested vegetables: carrots, celery, onions, garlic cloves, mushrooms, potatoes, and any other vegetable that is good roasted. Shown here is a bed of celery tops, carrots and mushrooms.
• 4. Optionally, add a layer of aromatic herbs. Suggested herbs: rosemary (shown here), parsley, thyme, cilantro, basil, dill, etc.
• 5. Remove the giblets, neck, etc., from the bird's cavity. If you plan to make chicken stock, wash the miscellaneous parts, salt and pepper them, and put around the edge of the roasting pan on top of the vegetables.
• 6. Place the chicken, back side up, on the cutting surface. Have the tail ("Pope's Nose," "last part over-the-fence") face you.
• 7. Using kitchen shears or a serrated knife, cut along one side of the backbone, starting at the tail. Cut along the other side and remove the backbone.
• 8. Cut off any large pieces of fat, remove loose scraps of giblets, and wash the chicken. If you plan to make stock, put the backbone on the edge of the bed of vegetables.
• 9. Place the chicken on the cutting surface, neck-end (wing end) toward you. Using a sharp knife, cut the cartilage covering the end of the breast bone (keel bone) until the chicken falls flat easily.
• 10. Pop out the keel bone and the blade of cartilege attached to it and discard them. If, as shown here, the cartilege won't come out easily, you can ignore it. The keel bone may be left in as well if it is stuck. Your purpose is simply to have a flat chicken.
• 11. Season both sides of the chicken as desired. The chicken shown here is simply seasoned with salt and pepper. Optionally, drizzle melted butter or olive oil on top of the chicken.
• 12. Lay the chicken, skin side up, on top of the bed of vegetables and roast in a 400F oven for 1 hour for a broiler-fryer and 1 hour and 15 minutes for a roasting chicken.
• 13. Check the internal temperature of the chicken with an instant-read thermometer. The US government food safety pages recommend an internal temperature of at least 165F. We prefer our chicken more thoroughly cooked and wait until the bird reaches an internal temperature of 185F to 195F. Even at this high temperature, the chicken remains moist because it has absorbed the steam from the bed of vegetables. The chicken shown is a smallish bird and reached an internal temperature over 200F but remained moist.
• 14. Serving suggestion: serve chicken and roasted vegetables with juice from the pan spooned over and fresh french bread to soak up the juices. Save bones, skin, and remainder of contents of the roasting pan to make stock.

BUTTERFLIED ROAST CHICKEN WITH LEMON AND ROSEMARY

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line a rimmed baking pan with aluminum foil. Place a rack on top of foil.
• Rub olive oil on both sides of chicken and generously season with salt and black pepper. Arrange lemon slices and rosemary on the rack and place chicken, skin-side up, onto the rack.
• Roast in the preheated oven until no longer pink at the bone and the juices run clear, 45 to 55 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh, near the bone should read 165 degrees F (74 degrees C).
• Transfer chicken to a serving platter and tent a piece of aluminum foil over it. Discard lemon and rosemary and remove rack.
• Pour wine into the baking pan and gently loosen the bits of food in the pan with a wooden spoon, being careful not to tear the foil. Strain pan juices into a saucepan and bring to a boil; cook until sauce is slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Spoon sauce over chicken.

BUTTERFLIED CHICKEN

Steps:

• Mix the chopped rosemary, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper together in a small bowl to make a paste.
• Place the chickens on a sheet pan, skin side up, and loosen the skin from the meat with your fingers. Place 1/2 of the paste under the skin of each chicken. Rub any remaining paste on the outside and underside of the chickens.
• Turn the chicken skin side down and scatter the lemon slices and sprigs of rosemary over each chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Roll each chicken up, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
• Heat a grill with coals. Spread the coals out in 1 dense layer and brush the grill with oil. Unroll the chickens, place them on the grill and cook for 12 minutes on each side.

CRISP-SKIN HIGH-ROAST BUTTERFLIED CHICKEN WITH POTATOES

Steps:

• Dissolve salt and sugar in 2 quarts cold water in large container. Immerse chicken and refrigerate until fully seasoned, about 1 hour. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 500°.
• Line bottom of broiler pan with foil and spray with nonstick vegetable cooking spray. Remove chicken from brine and rinse thoroughly under cold running water. Following illustrations 1 through 6, butterfly chicken, flatten breastbone, apply flavored butter (if using), and position chicken on broiler pan rack; thoroughly pat dry with paper towels.
• Toss potatoes with 1 tablespoon oil, salt and pepper to taste in medium bowl. Spread potatoes in even layer in foil-lined broiler pan bottom. Place broiler pan rack with chicken on top. Rub chicken with remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons oil and sprinkle with pepper.
• Roast chicken until spotty brown, about 20 minutes. Rotate pan and continue to roast until skin has crisped and turned a deep brown and an instant-read internal thermometer registers 160° in thickest part of breast, 20 to 25 minutes longer. Transfer chicken to cutting board. With potholders, remove broiler pan rack; soak up excess grease from potatoes with several sheets paper towels. Remove foil liner with potatoes from broiler pan bottom and invert foil and potatoes onto cookie sheet or second cutting board. Carefully peel back foil, using a metal spatula to help scrape potatoes off foil as needed. With additional paper towels, pat off remaining grease.

MOIST ROASTED WHOLE CHICKEN

Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 450 degrees before starting to prepare the chicken.
• Place the whole chicken into a medium sized baking pan.
• Rub the entire bird with the olive oil.
• In a small bowl combine the salt, pepper, oregano, basil, and paprika, then sprinkle evenly over chicken.
• In the preheated oven bake the chicken for 20 minutes.
• Lower the oven to 400 degrees.
• Continue baking for 40-50 minutes, or until golden brown and juices run clear.
• If your chicken looks like it is browning too quickly, Lay a sheet of tin foil over the top loosely and it will slow down the browning for you.
• Let the chicken rest in it's juices for at least 10 minutes before carving and serving. (This let's the bird reabsorb some of the juices and helps to make it even more moist.).