Wait, did you just say....? Yes, yes I did.

It's a day of firsts for me! Its my very first post on my very first day of my very first blog. (awwwe!) And to celebrate I spatchcocked a chicken. And it came o
ut juicy, moist & delicious! Now, before you scroll down for the 'dirty' pictures (there arent any...both hands were very busy) or switch back to FB hear me out. I have not done anything immoral to a poor defenseless animal. The animal was not defenseless it was dead, and it was only moderately dirty since I did it in the sink.
'Spatchcock' is one of those delightfully dirty sounding food words that make people stop and wonder if they heard you right. Like, 'macerate'. Oh yeah, I macerated my b
erries this morning...they are delicious on ice cream. (At which point my HomoHomie would've walked by and given me the 'hmmm..ain't touching this one' look and asked if the guy was hot.) 'Spatchcocking', if you havent googled it yet, is basically cutting the backbone out of a whole bird in order to flatten it out so it cooks faster and more evenly. "But", you say, "why have I never heard of this? Surely 'spatchcock' is a word that would stick in my memory." Well, you have heard of it, most people call it 'butterflying'. Now, there seem to be some technical differences, and an interesting bit of history but, whatever. (look up the word...I dare you). Sometime there's nothing better than a smart-ass innuendo to brighten your day!
There are tutorials & pictures all over the web of how to do this. (I glanced over the instructions in my fave magazine & used this banging recipe which I made for dinner tonight.)
First, I started with a well scrubbed sink. Cut the bird out of its little package and rinse it inside and out with cold water. Make sure you check for a 'gut bag'. (It'll have gizzards, liver, maybe the neck or the heart. Drrty gets pretty psyched about the gizzards & the liver. I like to use the neck in stock.) With a good set of KITCHEN shears (ya know the ones that come in your knife block that you use to cut open that mac-n-cheese pouch?) , cut down one side of the backbone. Now, it's gonna crunch. And if you're stomach isn't all that strong, you're gonna wanna quit. DON'T! It'll be worth it! (And if it helps, think of this as training for a zombie apocalypse. If you cant cut through some little ol' chicken bones, how ya gonna cut off zombie grandma's head?).

20 min into roasting

a well rubbed bird

Set, the lovely backbone aside. Lay your little buddy breast side up on a lightly olive oiled baking sheet. Massage your bird's skin with a mix of olive oil & your favorite herbs. (I used sea salt, thyme, rosemary & pepper.) Slide some of that oily goodness under the skin on the breast, thighs and drumsticks. (See, not even trying & it still sounds sleazy.) Use the lemon slices under the skin too (see recipe link). Brightens the meat right up. Then roast at 425 degrees for 50-60 min. The thickest part of the breast should temp at 165 degrees. Pull from the oven and LEAVE IT ALONE for at least 10 minutes. Drrty thinks I am crazy, but if you cut into that delightful, golden, crispy skinned goodness now, it's gonna taste like sawdust.
Steam some veg. Open a box of couscous. Don't forget some wine. AWESOME! And the leftovers will become chicken soup, chicken stock for the freezer and maybe chicken pot pie.
Now, more clean up. yippee....

golden, crunchy-skinned, succulent goodness