How can you reduce the cooking time to make a quick roast chicken for dinner? The easy answer is to spatchcock the chicken – and it’s easier than you think!

Roast Spatchcock Chicken

I can hear you groaning and turning away now, but wait, spatchcocking a chicken isn’t hard and it doesn’t take long. You will save much more time with the cooking than you spend on the preparation. For years – decades even – I refused to entertain the idea of spatchcock chicken. Somehow I had associated a spatchcock with a galantine or ballotine, both of which involve de-boning the bird, or birds, and stuffing them, sometimes with other birds – like a three-bird roast. I did attempt one of these once, in my cooking-is-my-hobby days. Now that is time-consuming and fiddly. Suffice to say I didn’t have another go.

So what exactly is a spatchcock chicken? Simply put, you remove the backbone and lay the chicken out flat(-tish). Because the bird isn’t as dense it takes less time to cook hence a quick roast chicken! It has the added advantage of crispy skin all over, so what’s not to like?

These days I even spatchcock and freeze a chicken to take on holiday to cook. I’m very fussy about the chicken I eat, so I like to know that it’s come from a good home. A tip if you do this is to take a roasting bag so that you don’t have to clean the oven.

If you haven’t attempted spatchcocking before, see How to Spatchcock Chicken for a step-by-step guide then come back here for cooking instructions.

Quick roast chicken for a midweek dinner

Author: Everyday Cooks
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Print Recipe

Description

The roasting times for spatchcock chickens are shorter because the chicken is flattened out. How to spatchcock chicken gives you step-by-step instructions if you haven’t already tried this technique.

You will need: a large roasting tray, foil and a skewer or meat thermometer

Scale

Ingredients

1.5kg spatchcock chicken at room temperature
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 lemon
Salt and pepper

Instructions

Preparation:

Set the oven to 200°C fan, gas mark 7
Line the baking tray with a double layer of foil, or use one layer of extra-thick foil
Quarter the lemon

For the roast chicken:

Lay the chicken breast side up on the baking tray. Rearrange the legs if necessary so that they aren’t tucked under the chicken
Drip the olive oil over the chicken and rub it in with your hands – messy but effective
Season well with salt and pepper
Squeeze the juice from the lemon quarters over the chicken and add more seasoning if necessary. Tuck the lemon quarters under the chicken
Cook for 45 minutes or until the chicken is done
Check that the chicken is ready:
1. Insert a meat thermometer into the fleshy part of the leg and check that the temperature is at least 75°C OR
2. Insert a skewer into the fleshy part of the leg and check that the juices run clear
When the chicken is done, take out of the oven and leave to rest for 10-15 minutes before carving and serving

Notes

If the chicken is not at room temperature, add 10-15 minutes to the cooking time
This chicken is excellent for a summer weekend lunch cooked to be ready an hour before you want to eat it, served with salad and lots of mayonnaise

Everyday Cooks tip:

Spatchcock the chicken the night before to cut down the preparation time. I sometimes spatchcock a chicken before I freeze it.

Category: Dinner
Method: Roast
Cuisine: British

Keywords: Roast chicken, spatchcock chicken

Quick roast chicken for a midweek dinner