Good morning. I’m just spitballing here, but I bet the use of the word “spatchcocking” — which describes the business of cutting the backbone out of a bird and flattening the remaining body into a pan so that it roasts more quickly and evenly — peaks around Thanksgiving, at least in America. A spatchcocked turkey is a marvelous thing.
But the term is British in origin, and it relates generally to chickens or game birds. A spatchcocked chicken (above) makes for a fantastic meal, one that comes together in a fraction of the time it takes to roast a whole one.
Don’t be nervous if you’ve never de-backboned and roasted a chicken. Sohla El-Waylly has a neat new recipe, part of her new Cooking 101 series, that will walk you through the remarkably simple butchery and all that follows. If you don’t have time to dry brine the bird overnight, that’s just fine. Even a couple of hours under salt will yield a bird that’s juicy beneath its crisp, burnished skin.
Featured Recipe
Spatchcock Roast Chicken
That will be dinner tonight for me, alongside some lemony puréed potatoes and sautéed peas.
As for the rest of the week. …
