Join us!  Sign in   
Juicy butterflied roast chicken
Honey-glazed version. The secret is a roasting rack in the pan, and a flatter bird, no matter how you spice her. :) photo by rubicat Give a medal for this photo

Juicy butterflied roast chicken

Recipes »  Main Dish  »  Poultry - Chicken

After trying (and failing) to gracefully carve whole roast chickens, I have fallen in love with butterflying the bird. Butterflied roast chicken is juicy, easy to prepare, and makes carving a snap!

"This was an easy to prepare main dish. Recommend you use sturdy kitchen shears. I stuffed the underside of the skin with a whole shallot and three garlic cloves. Excellent. =)" - Savemilo2005

Yield: 6 Ready in 1 hours, 30 minutes

Cuisine: comfort foodMain Ingredient: chicken

(4.8, 8) 100% would make again (reviews)

Favorite favorite of 215 people 86 people Try Soon want to try


Servings          
Original recipe makes 6
1 roasting chicken
1 Herbs/spices for rub; 1 tsp. each shallot, pepper, salt, garlic, rosemary, basil
(note: herbs are customizable)
olive oil; to drizzle

Juicy butterflied roast chicken Preparation

Spray the broiler pan with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare your spice rub with any combination you'd like; I use powdered shallot/pepper seasoning (Penzey's Spices), rosemary, basil, pepper, garlic, and salt. About a teaspoon of each, or you can eyeball it.

Prep the chicken: flip the bird (ha, ha) so it's breast-side down. With the kitchen shears, cut alongside each side of the backbone and discard backbone. Open up the chicken and cut the breastbone down the center so chicken will lay flat.

Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Place the chicken on the broiler pan so that the legs and thighs are flat on the pan (they will rotate in a seemingly odd way; that's fine). Tuck the wings if you'd like; otherwise, just get your chicken to lay as flat as possible. Rub the spice mixture on the chicken, and drizzle a little bit of oil all over the top.

Roast in oven for 15 minutes and then reduce heat to 350 degrees. Continue to roast for 50 minutes to one hour, or until chicken is cooked through. Remove from oven and allow to stand 10 to 15 minutes, covered, before carving. While carving, you'll notice that the leg and thigh separate from the breast when sliced at an angle; the breasts, too, are easy to cut into servings when you're carving a flat bird. :)

Link to another BigOven recipe

Add a link to another recipe! What would you serve with this?

Add photo of this recipe...
  • Honey-glazed version. The secret is a roasting rack in the pan, and a flatter bird, no matter how you spice her. :) photo by rubicat rubicat

  • There's something beautiful about a simple, roasted bird. photo by rubicat rubicat

  • Calories Per Serving: 158
    Want detailed nutrition information, including line-by-line nutrition insights?  Try BigOven Pro for Free for 14 days!
    Date My private notes
    Add notes with BigOven Pro!

    Juicy butterflied roast chicken Reviews

    Give it a rating Would you make it again?   [please sign in to add your comment]
    I meant to say 'along the 'breasts' and legs...sorry for the typo
    8 months, 2 weeks, 17 hours, 50 minutes ago
    This was an easy to prepare main dish. Recommend you use sturdy kitchen shears. I stuffed the underside of the skin with a whole shallot and three garlic cloves. Excellent. =)
    1 years, 9 months, 2 weeks, 6 days, 11 hours, 28 minutes ago
    made this with drumsticks and i added potatoes and onions. great!
    2 years, 1 months, 2 weeks, 16 hours, 17 minutes ago
    This was great roast chicken. My family raved. I used herbs de provence, rosemary, salt and pepper, Delish. I served this with Mediterannean Couscous and sweet corn.
    3 years, 4 months, 2 weeks, 19 hours, 49 minutes ago
    Can not believe how this easy recipe could taste so great! I also put garlic cloves under the chicken skin and added some lemon juice.
    3 years, 5 months, 5 days, 3 hours, 28 minutes ago
    I made this recipe with an organic kosher chicken in my counter top roaster. Wow! Best roasted chicken I ever tasted.
    3 years, 12 months, 4 days, 8 hours, 28 minutes ago
    This was by far the best roasted chicken that I cooked at home. Even my daughter that hates meat, ate it with zest. I will make this again, again, and again, it was so good!!
    4 years, 1 months, 1 weeks, 6 days, 23 hours, 28 minutes ago
    Make sure you have a good pair of kitchen shears, a broiling pan, and a bowl of spices already prepared before you touch the chicken. I usually prep the chicken in my (cleaned) sink, which makes cleaning up the chicken easy: just fill with hot, soapy water and a bit of bleach! [I posted this recipe.]
    4 years, 6 months, 4 weeks, 1 days, 19 hours, 1 minutes ago

    Tags

    1. savory
    2. herb
    3. chicken
    4. roasting
    5. chicken
    6. main dish
    7. Dinner
    8. Winter

    Blogger? Grab a link to this recipe


    Link type:     

    Want a link to this recipe? Just copy the text below and paste it into your blog:


    here's how it will appear in your blog:

    ×

    Print, send, share this recipe


    Hi there! Please sign in first.

    BigOven needs to know who you are in order to keep your recipes, grocery list and menu plan, and sync it with your smartphone or tablet.

    Not yet a BigOven member? Join us, save time and money!

    ×

    Ready? Let's get cooking.