Ready to change the roast chicken game? This spatchcock chicken recipe is all you need! A few tips make all the difference in this succulent, juicy chicken with extra crispy skin. Be sure to read on and watch the video below.
Whole roast chicken is one of those comforting meals every home cook should be able to make. But I’ll be first to admit, when it comes to roasting the entire bird whole, achieving perfection can be tricky.
One of the common problems people run into with whole roasted chicken is that, often times, the chicken breasts dry out before the legs come up to appropriate temperature. While you can just cut up a whole chicken before roasting like I do in my chicken marbella recipe, there’s another answer to this pesky problem: Spatchcock!
What is Spatchcock Chicken?
To spatchcock or butterfly chicken means to split a whole chicken by removing its backbone so that it is flattened. You can ask your butcher to do this for you, but it really is easy enough to butterfly a chicken yourself.
Why do you spatchcock a chicken?
Whether you’re going for a grilled whole chicken or roast chicken, being able to lay the bird flat directly on the grill or in your baking dish allows it to cook more effeciently and evenly. Plus, you get beautifully crispy skins while the meat remains nice and juicy.
How do you spatchcock a whole chicken?
I find that a pair of good kitchen shears is the right and easiest tool to use for this job. Here is what you do:
- Remove the neck and gizzards.
- Remove the backbone. Start from the tail of the chicken and cut along the right side of the backbone from the tail to the neck. Then do the same on the left side of the backbone.
You can discard or freeze the backbone to make chicken stock later on. - Break the breastbone by pressing down on the wings to flatten the bird.
- Trim the wings. Flip the bird over and remove the wings (this is optional but especially helpful when grilling and you need to flip the bird on it’s back).
I promised you succulent and crispy roast chicken, so here are few tips that make all the difference…
Tips for crispiest roasted chicken
- Butterfly the chicken. With a flattened chicken, as I mentioned earlier, we have more surface area foro browning.
- Salt your bird in advance. In Salt Fat Acid Heat, Samin Nosrat shares one of the simplest tricks to attain a delightfully succulent, crispy-skinned bird. Her trick, in one word: SALT. And when it comes to whole chicken, salt early. Seasoning in advance (I do mine overnight) gives salt plenty of time to diffuse evenly throughout the bird, doing it’s quiet work of flavoring and tenderizing.
- Air chill the chicken. Once salted, another element that is equally important here is air. Chill your generously seasoned bird in the fridge uncovered and with the skin side up.The constantly circulating air dries out the skin. The bird will look, as Samin puts it, “scarily fossilized.” But, the dried-out skin cooks up golden and glassy…the crispiest you’ll ever have!
How to cook spatchcock chicken in the oven?
- Season the chicken. To flavor my chicken, salt is the first step, as I mentioned above. And whenever possible, I salt it the night before and leave it to chill in the fridge uncovered. One hour before roasting, apply a simple spice rub. This time, I went for warm Eastern Mediterranean spices and incorporated allspice, paprika, and nutmeg along with a little bit of garlic powder and black pepper. (If you’d like a sweet and citrusy situation, check out our Roast Spatchcock Chicken with Citrus & Honey.)
The biggest trick when flavoring the chicken is to make sure to rub the spice mixture all over, and especially underneath the skin. Lift the skin up and get under it with some of the spice mixture. - Roast spatchock chicken in the oven at 425 degrees F. While a whole roast chicken can take 1 1/2 hours or more to cook through, this butterflied chicken will roast in 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on your oven. With my oven, it takes about 1 hour, and I also like my chicken skins on the darker side of gold (rotate the pan or skillet for even color).
How do you know when a spatchcock chicken is done?
Using a meat thermometer, inserted in the thickest part, you should be able to determine the chicken is ready when its internal temperature registers 165 degrees F.
What to Serve Along?
I had a few Campari tomatoes and onions to use up this time, so I cooked those in the oven to serve along.
But here are many sides that would be great next to this oven roasted chicken like: Quick roasted tomatoes, Greek potatoes, Italian roasted vegetables, Greek lemon rice.
For salads, the options are plenty! Radicchio Salad, Mediterranean Orzo Salad, Mediterranean 3-bean salad or Fattoush are a few ideas.
I’ll just say this too, a drizzle of my homemade tahini sauce on top of this roast chicken is just magic!
More Cozy Recipes to Try:
Cornish Hen Recipe with Mediterranean Garlic Spice Rub
Hungry for more? Browse hundreds of Mediterranean recipes + My top Mediterranean Diet recipes. Join my FREE e-mail list to receive new recipes and my weekly dinner plan!
VISIT OUR ONLINE SHOP FOR QUALITY OLIVE OILS, ALL-NATURAL SPICES AND MORE
Crispy Spatchcock Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 lb whole chicken
- Salt
- 1 1/2 tsp allspice
- 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp sweet paprika
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- Extra virgin olive oil (I used Private Reserve Greek extra virgin olive oil)
Optional
- 8 Campari tomatoes
- 1 large sweet onion (peeled and quartered)
- Handful green olives
Instructions
- Spatchcock (butterfly) the chicken. Place the chicken on a cutting board with its backbone facing you. Using a pair of sturdy kitchen shears, cut out the backbone by cutting along both sides of the spine. Remove the backbone. Push down on the breasts to flatten the chicken. Flip the bird over and remove the wing tips. (See the step by step tutorial in the post showing how to spatchock chicken.) You can also ask your butcher to do it.
- Salt the chicken. (If you have time, do this the night before). Place the chicken, breast side up, on a large cutting board. Push down on the breastbone. Generously season with kosher salt on both sides. Place the chicken, breast side up, on a shallow roasting dish. Refrigerate uncovered (you can leave it in the fridge to airchill for a couple of hours or overnight).
- Bring the chicken to room temperature. One hour before you plan to roast it, pull the chicken out of the fridge and set at room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fand adjust an oven rack right in the middle.
- In a small dish, mix the spices. Season the chicken on both sides. Pull the skin up, and apply some of the spice mix underneath as well.
- Sear the chicken. In a 12-inch cast iron skillet, add just enough extra virgin olive oil to coat the bottom. Heat over medium-high. As soon as the oil is shimmering, add the chicken, breast side down. Brown for 6-8 minutes, then flip over and brown on the other side another 5 minutes or so.
- Roast the chicken. Transfer the cast iron skillet to the heated oven middle rack. Slide it all way to the back of the oven, with the handle of the pan facing left.
- After 20 minutes, using oven mitts, carefully, turn the skillet 180 degrees so that the handle is now pointing right. Push to the back of the oven again. Roast for another 30 to 45 minutes, until the chicken is brown all over and the juices run clear or until the chicken is done and its internal temperature registers 165 degrees F.
- Option to Add Vegetables. If you like, about 20 minutes or so before you pull the chicken out of the oven, add the tomato and onion to a small roasting dish. Toss with olive oil and salt. Place on the lower rack of the oven to roast. When done, add a handful of spicy green olives to the roasted veggies and serve with the chicken. (see more ideas for what to serve along)
- Let rest before carving. Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes before carving.
Video
Notes
- When to salt the chicken. If you don’t have time to salt the chicken and refrigerate overnight, do this as early as possible the day of (even 2 hours or so before cooking will help). Pat the chicken dry with paper towel before continuing on.
- What to serve along? Homemade Tahini Sauce to drizzle on top. And for sides, Fattoush salad; Greek Green Beans; Greek Roasted Potatoes; Italian Roasted Veggies
- Visit Our Shop to browse olive oil bundles and all-natural and organic spices including Allspice sweet paprika, and nutmeg. SAVE! Try our Ultimate Mediterranean Spice Bundle! Or create your own bundle with our all-natural and organic spices!
- Recipe adapted from Salt Fat Acid Heat
Nutrition
*This post originally appeared on The Mediterranean Dish in 2017 and has been recently updated with new information and media for readers’ benefit. Enjoy!
Lauren
I have made this dish several times. My family loves it!
Wonderful, Sandy! Thanks so much for sharing!
This was our Easter meat. Can I say fantastic? Hubs and I are the perfect pair to devour a chicken–I do dark meat and he does the light. This time, with this recipe, he had to fight me just a little bit for the chicken breast. It was the juiciest ever! And the spice mix was so savory! This will be our go-to for a roasted chicken recipe from here on. Thank you!
Judith, this is wonderful to hear! Thank you so much for sharing. Sounds like a successful Easter meal!
Love spatchcock chicken
So tried this really nice
But I did put all the spices under the skin also
Hi from the UK
I got up early to prepare the chicken for tonight’s dinner. I know that’s not the proper amount of time to air dry. Did I ruin it by starting so late? It will have 13 hours rather than 24.
Marcie, so sorry I am not always able to get to questions as quickly as I like. Any amount of time you are able to season the chicken and let it air dry in fridge will do the chicken some good. Hope you enjoyed it!
This recipe was easy to follow and easy to enjoy (also fun to get the family to say spatchcock and learn a new word). The resulting chicken was just perfect. I had seen a comment on another recipe that someone was going to add a bit of aleppo pepper to the spice blend so did that as well and it was a nice addition.
Definitely keeping this one in the recipe binder!
Awesome, Sharon!!! I’m so so glad you enjoyed.
I suggest that you add oven temperatures, in Celsius degrees too, as you have readers all around the world.
This looks lovely and clever tip with the salt……… how can you ensure that the chicken is not too salty once cooked? I assume you don’t rinse the salt off beforehand……. thanks. Love your blog! M
From my experience, the chicken is not too salty 🙂 I’ve followed this tip a number of times, and without fail, succulent chicken with perfectly crisp skin. We love it.
Can confirm, chicken doesn’t come out too salty. My husband typically salts everything and specifically commented the chicken didn’t need it but wasn’t salty either. He was the one who salted the bird the night before too!
The spices that cook into the chicken during roasting blend nicely and the resulting meat is just very moist and tasty.
And thank you for sharing this feed back too! Helpful for others to hear this!!!
How much salt is everyone using for one chicken? This sounds delicious!
This recipe is lovely. I love the idea of spatchcock so I can brown the meat quickly on both sides and finish chicken in oven. I must point out, I used my chef alarm and it was done in total of 40 minutes, so I would watch your oven because you may just need to roast for 20 minutes on one side and another 20 to 30 minutes on the other side.
Wonderful, thank you so much for sharing your feedback Carol
Great chicken recipe. We loved it! I did what you wrote regarding the salt and it was perfection. Also, for some reason this chicken comes ready packaged with the backbone removed so i hardly have to do anything. I will become part of my repertoire. Thank you. .
I have a chicken waiting and want to try this delicious looking recipe. However,you don’t specify how much salt and since the chickens here are sold already koshered, they are rather salty. I learned very early not to add salt to chicken dishesbwhile cooking. It’s a pain in the neck to look for unkoshered chickens at a store which is too far to walk to. How much salt would you suggest? Or maybe none at all?
Hello, Florence! My apologies, I am not always able to get to questions and comments immediately. This spatchcocked chicken uses a good bit of salt, it’s really not measured, just a generous amount so that you actually see the salt crystals on top. However, if your chicken is already salty, then you can just try a pinch of salt and chill in the fridge, uncovered overnight. Hope this helps.
The last couple of times I have roasted a chicken (and I roast a whole chicken often, even in the slow cooker), I have done it this way. Cooks faster! I love it. I happen to have a whole chicken in my freezer (I stock up when they’re on sale) and will definitely try this recipe next. Looks delicious!!
Didn’t see the question for the giveaway. Would make it for my husband and my mom. Would also make it when having company over for dinner.
Enjoy!
I would cook this dish for my family, we always eat chicken it seems.
I know I would just love this BUT my problem is the cast iron pan.
I’m 78 years old and just can’t lift it and then put it in the oven.
Will it be worth it to cook in a regular pan?
Hi MaryAnne! Yes, you can absolutely use a different pan or skillet. Do you an oven-safe pan with a handle? You can use a pan without a handle, but the idea of having one with a handle is that after 20 minutes of roasting (step 8), you can easily turn the pan 180 degrees with the handle facing the other way for even cooking.
this sounds fabulous! can’t wait to try it, as soon as the temperature drops a few degrees..
YES! Enjoy, Julie!
I would cook this for my friend’s grandmother. She’s in her 90s and is sharp and independent. I visit her each afternoon and sometimes cook her dinner. I think she’d love this.