Chicken, chicken, chicken. Back at home we ate so much chicken my dad used to say he was about to grow wings lol. It’s an easy protein to get and cook so you never really have too many recipes for it. That’s why I’m posting this roasted spatchcock chicken recipe that’s cooked with lots of spices making it extremely tasty. Also you won’t believe how easy it is to make.
One of the most common questions I get about chicken is why you end up with a dry chicken breast. Chicken breasts have less fat than the legs and so they’re more prone to become dry. But the truth is that there’s no reason why it should be dry! You only have to cook it the right amount of time. How long is that? Hard to know. It depends on the size of your chicken, your oven and the temperature that the chicken is at when it goes in.
The best way to cook chicken to the perfect degree (or any meat , really) is with a meat thermometer. They’re unexpensive and they’re totally worth it. Once all the parts of the chicken hit 73C you can remove it from the oven because all bacterias have now been killed. So if the chicken breast is at 73C but the leg is at 68C then it needs to go back in for a bit more. Everything needs to hit at least 73 and then you take it out immediately to avoid overcooking. I assure you that the breast will be extremely juicy, at home it’s the first thing we attack and it was spectacular.
Now let’s talk potatoes… These potatoes that cook under the spatchcock chicken are just the most glorious potatoes ever lol. It’s true they don’t end up golden but they absorb all the juices from the chicken and they turn out AMAZING! I promise you’ll love them.
Ingredients
For the chicken
- 2 kg chicken whole
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1/2 tbsp onion powder
- 1/2 tbsp garlic powder
- 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tbsp ground oregano
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil
For the potatoes
- 4 potatoes in cubes, skin on
- 4 garlic cloves crushed
- 4 sprigs rosemary
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
For the potatoes
- In a roasting dish mix the potatoes with the garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary sprigs.
For the chicken
- Using sharp scissors cut on both sides of the chicken’s backbone cutting through the ribs. Keep what’s left and you can freeze it for whenever you need to make a stock.
- Make sure that the interior of the chicken is really clean and remove any bits of offal that could be in there.
- Turn the chicken over and press down on it to flatten it.
- In a bowl mix all the other ingredients to make a delicious-smelling paste.
- Cover the chicken with this paste: on the top, bottom and also in between the skin and meat. Even though you don’t enjoy eating skin you want to keep it on so the meat is extra moist later.
- Place the chicken over the potatoes and they go into a preheated oven at 180C until the inside of the chicken reaches at least 73C on all areas (read the text from the post). My 2kg chicken took 1h15min.
- Let it rest 15min covered with tin foil so it doesn’t go cold. In this time the meat will reabsorb all those juices that are right now wondering around because of the heat.
- Serve with a fresh salad. I did a lettuce, cucumber and almonds salad :).
