We’re spatchcocking today!! Get excited. This Lemon Roasted Spatchcock Chicken is coming your way and it’s a great way to meal prep for the week.
In case you haven’t heard of spatchcocking – it’s basically splitting the chicken by removing the backbone and flattening it out so it roasts much faster. And while that might sound complicated – we’ve got a step by step photo tutorial on how to do it!
Growing up, my parents would always make whole roasted chickens on the regular. They were amazing to say the least. And let’s not even start on the crispy chicken skin – I’d demolish that by myself no problem. The whole house would smell fantastic and if there were leftovers, my mom would throw them into one of my favorite casseroles for the next night.
These days, I make my own roasted chicken a few times a month. And when there are leftovers, I’ll throw them into the same casserole that my husband is now obsessed with or put them into a salad of some sorts. Last weekend we were in a bit of a rush to head over to a friends party, but I was determined to roast one off for the week to use as leftovers. So instead of roasting it whole, I spatchcocked it! GENIUS! Way less time and just as delicious.
Spatchcock is just a fancy way of calling a chicken or a turkey that’s been butterflied. The backbone is removed so you can open it up and roast the entire thing so it’s extra crispy. I roast mine with tons of lemons, salt, pepper, garlic and whatever herbs I have on hand, plus some potatoes to catch any of the drippings and soak up all that flavor.
start by cutting along one side of the backbone cut all the way to the top then cut the other side of the backbone and remove the bone entirely flip the chicken over and push it down with your hand breaking the breast bone
Once it’s done, not only will your house smell absurdly delicious, but you’ll have one good looking dinner and hopefully leftovers! Carve it up, shred it up, toss it into some enchiladas and never fear about having time to roast and entire chicken ever again!
season with salt, pepper and herbs tuck lemons around the bird for extra flavor add some baby potatoes to soak up all the drippings drizzle with olive oil
And while this is a tutorial for a Spatchcock Chicken, you can do the same thing with a turkey! And you can spice either differently depending on what you plan on using the meat for.
cook until the bird is 165 degrees F remove and let rest for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.
Lemon Roasted Spatchcock Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 4-pound whole chicken
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for potatoes
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon dried thyme
- 1 lemon, juiced and zested
- 2 teaspoons chopped rosemary
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 heads garlic, sliced in half
- 2 lemons, halved
- 2 cups baby potatoes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°. Using poultry shears, cut along each side of the chicken backbone and remove it. Turn the chicken breast side up and press on the breastbone to flatten the chicken. Rub the chicken all over with the olive oil, oregano, thyme, lemon zest, juice and rosemary. Generously season with salt and pepper.
- Transfer the chicken to a large cast iron skillet, skin side up with the garlic and lemon halves tucked in under the chicken. Scatter the potatoes around the chicken and drizzle them with olive oil, salt and pepper..
- Roast for 45-50 minutes, until the skin is golden browned and an instant-read thermometer inserted in an inner thigh registers 165°. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and let rest for 10 minutes before serving
love. love LOVE!
I love the butterfly idea, and a great way to use up my lemons without making lemon squares!
I can just smell it now!
Well this looks and sounds fabulous, but I can understand why’d you’d wait to share it with us! Congratulations on your engagement!! Lots of happiness to you and your fiancé!
This sounds wonderful. I love the smell of a chicken roasting too – esp. when there is citrus and herbs involved! I just need to find a place to butterfly my chicken:-).
Do it yourself. It’s time to learn. Besides how bad can you mess it up. It’s just chicken.
I just saw them at Trader Joe’s!
yuuuuuuuum. And you can’t lose with Lindy and Grundy!
Fiancé! The same casserole that my fiancé is now obsessed with…
Congratulations!
Not sure i can even say that name “Spatchcock” but I really love the idea of this! My kiddos would too 🙂
this looks divine! one of my favorite parts of fall is filling the entire house with the aroma of roasting foods! yum!
Made this tonight. Major hit! Thanks, Gaby. And congratulations!!!!!!!!
I love roasted chicken! I’ve never tried it butterflied or spatchcocked. Looks scrumptious. I love the lemon. Do the mere lemons make a big difference?
yes, I cooked mine on top of a halved lemon and when the chicken was done and cool enough, I squeezed a bit of the juice from the roasted lemons over the chicken. The crowning touch !
I rememeber when I was much younger the house smelled like roasted chicken, I can bet there will be guests arriving in a while. Now that there are a lot more kitchen gadgets (thanks to them!) roasted chicken does not mean a special occasion anymore. It can just be a great dinner for a great household who wants to enjoy great food. Thanks for sharing this magnificent recipe!
Appreictiaon for this information is over 9000-thank you!
Would you post the recipe for the casserole you love so much?
Are the herbs fresh or dried?
dried!
Just wondering on the size of your cast iron skillet Your Spatchcock Chicken sound amazing. Thank you.
this was a 12 inch!!
What would you serve with this?
a salad! and the potatoes that are a part of the recipe
This was soooo delicious! The chicken was juicy and tender and the sauce complemented it perfectly! I cheated a bit and bought a pre-spatcocked chicken from Whole Foods — definitely worth it as it made it far less labor intensive
I am so excited to try this, and the tutorial was VERY helpful. I love having the chicken done and using it in different things throughout the week.
Can’t wait to try……..random question, do you ever freeze your basil vinaigrette?
all the time!
We made this last night, really really good! But it took the chicken almost 1.5 hours to be fully cooked, any idea why so much longer than expected?
was it a much larger chicken?
I’ve made this dish several times and it’s so easy and tastes great. Definitely fancy enough for company.
I used a 4 lb chicken. It was already spatchcocked so I got to skip that step! Unfortunately due to the stay-at-home order I was out of potatoes. I was also out of lemons. I had plenty of garlic! So this is what I did, I opened up about eight cloves of garlic and smash them I put them at the bottom of the pan and put the chicken on top. I was fortunate enough to have herbs from my own garden that were dried. I had some frozen lemon cubes so I defrosted some and put them over the chicken and in the pan. the whole thing was totally awesome I was so excited I can’t wait to make it again and again.
Sometime when I get out I will buy some potatoes to put in. This is extremely close to my favorite Greek restaurant except that they closed leaving me in the dust!
Highly recommend this recipe.
Super moist and tasty.
Hey!! I have a chicken but it’s only about 2 pounds, do you think I could still make this an just adjust the cooking time? Or would you recommend not spatchcocking it because it smaller?
you could do it! just make sure to use an internal thermometer and take it out once it reaches the proper temp so you don’t overcook
***** LOVE LOVE LOVE
THIS RECIPE
Omg! The BEST! My first try at this turned out AMAZING!. Added carrots since I was low on potatoes. The lemon and garlic turned my broth into something GREATNESS! I also used my infused hot olive oil…I like a little kick. So many uses after I have my yummy meal!I wish I could post my out come! Thank you !
Best roasted chicken I’ve ever made! Love the herbs and lemon combination, and the chicken came out perfectly. Thanks!
I’m doing this dish now – it smells heavenly & in 45 minutes, hubby & I are digging in
4 pound chickens are not available at the supermarket- just 5 pound plus.
I wish the master chefs would be realistic.
flattered you think I’m a master chef!! 4 lb birds are available at my market – but a 5 lb bird works too!! Just will need a little bit longer in the oven. I’d suggest having a meat thermometer to tell when it’s perfectly done!
Delicious recipe! I will definitely cook this again!!! My apartment smelled delicious 🙂
I LOVE this recipe! It has become part of our rotation, and it never disappoints, both for ease and deliciousness. I used to occasionally try to roast a whole chicken and almost always overcooked the white meat. This method cooks the whole chicken perfectly. I am the only one in my family who will eat the garlic cloves, but I will gladly carry that mantle 🙂 Thank you Gaby!!
This recipe is the same as my Mom’s/she use to do this for the weekend Love it AWESOME! Thank you for having this and sharing it as l have looked everywhere for her’s this is the one..Thank you again so much.
Of course, the crispy herb/spiced skin was the star of the show. But the meat was tender and very juicy. This is the first time I have made spatchcock chicken, but definitely not the last. It was SO delicious.
It was delicious!! But was out of rosemary so I used thyme and also out of big potatoes so I used Yukon cut up small and also added carrots to the mix and changed the temp to 275 and since mine was a 5 pounder I let it cook for 4 hours while cleaning my house amd taking care of my 2 month old who was born 2/22/22. Let me say all my kids and hubby loved it and def making again!! Added this recipe to my personal book of recipes I keep and look forward to trying more of your recipes and will keep and eye out for a recipes book of you have one!!