Quick roast chicken for a midweek dinner

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.

Print Recipe

Quick roast chicken for a midweek dinner

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

Prep Time20 mins

Cook Time45 mins

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: British

Keyword: Roast chicken, spatchcock chicken

Author: [email protected] Cooks

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg 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:

• Insert a meat thermometer into the fleshy part of the leg and check that the temperature is at least 80°C OR
• 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.