Recipes, guides and kitchen know-how. Mostly useful, occasionally silly.
How to Spatchcock a Chicken - Flatten It, Roast It, Dinner in Half the Time
Snip out the backbone with kitchen scissors, press the bird flat, rub it with lemon, garlic and herbs and roast it in about 45 minutes. Crispier skin, juicier breast, and thighs that actually cook.
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- Prep15 min
- Cook45 min
- Rest15 min
- Serves4
A normal roast chicken takes about an hour and a half.
That's an hour and a half of hovering, basting, opening the oven door, closing the oven door, and wondering why the breast is turning to cardboard while the legs are still pink at the bone.
It's not you. It's the shape.
A chicken is a lumpy, awkward thing. The breast sits up high in the heat and the thighs hide underneath in the shade.
So we're going to fix the shape. Snip out the backbone, press the bird flat, and roast it in about 45 minutes.
Crispier skin, juicier breast, thighs that actually get cooked, and dinner on the table before anyone starts eating crisps out of boredom.
This is my spatchcock chicken. It sounds like a medieval punishment. It's actually the laziest good roast you'll ever make.
Why is it called spatchcock?
Nobody's completely sure, which is my favourite kind of food history.
The first written record is from 1785, in a dictionary by a Captain Francis Grose. He reckoned it was short for "a dispatch cock" - an Irish dish for "any sudden occasion", where a bird was killed, split and grilled in a hurry.
The Oxford English Dictionary agrees it started in Irish use, and later turned up mostly in Anglo-Indian cooking.
Other word people think it's related to "spitchcock", an eel dish from the 1590s. Which is the least appetising thing I've read all week.
Either way, the idea's been the same for over 200 years: flat bird, fast dinner. Captain Grose was clearly a man who got hungry at short notice. I respect that.
What you need
For the chicken
- 1 whole chicken, about 1.5-1.75kg. A standard supermarket bird is perfect.
- 1 tsp sea salt, plus black pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil
For the lemon, garlic and herb rub
- Zest and juice of 1 lemon - keep the squeezed halves to roast alongside
- 2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
- About 20g thyme or rosemary - a small bunch, leaves pulled off and roughly chopped
Kit
- Strong kitchen scissors. Not the ones from the drawer that came free with a magazine.
- A large chopping board
- A big roasting tray
- A meat thermometer, if you have one. Highly recommended. Guessing is how the hovering starts.
How to spatchcock a chicken
This is the bit people are scared of. It takes about two minutes and you can't really get it wrong.
Don't wash the chicken first. It doesn't clean it - it just sprays raw chicken germs over your sink, your taps and your shirt. The Food Standards Agency has been saying this for years: don't wash raw chicken. If you want a refresher on why your kitchen tap is dirtier than it looks, we've written that up too.
1. Cut out the backbone
- Take the chicken out of the fridge about an hour before you want to cook it.
- Sit it breast side down on the board, with the parson's nose (the pointy tail end) facing you.
- Cut along one side of the backbone, from the tail up to the neck. Keep the blades close to the bone.
- Turn the bird round and cut along the other side. The backbone lifts out in one long strip.
- Snip off the wing tips while you're there. They only burn.
Don't bin the backbone. Bag it up and freeze it for stock. Or give it a respectful send-off. Your call.
A good pair of scissors makes this a two-minute job instead of a wrestling match. Our kitchen scissors are sharp enough for meat and bones, comfy to grip, and go back in their own protective sleeve afterwards. Which is more than can be said for the chicken.
2. Flatten it
- Flip the chicken over so it's breast side up.
- Put the heel of your hand on the middle of the breast and press down firmly until you feel the breastbone crack and the bird goes flat.
- Tuck the legs so the thighs turn slightly inwards and everything sits at roughly the same height.
- Wash your hands, the scissors and the board in hot soapy water before you touch anything else.
That's it. You've spatchcocked a chicken. Feel free to tell people at work.
3. Rub it and marinate
- Mix the lemon zest and juice, garlic, herbs, olive oil, salt and a good grind of pepper in a small bowl.
- Sit the chicken in the roasting tray and rub the mixture all over, top and bottom. Push a little under the skin of the breast if you're feeling brave.
- Cover and leave it in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Overnight is even better.
This is my go-to spatchcock chicken marinade because it's all stuff you already have. If you don't have a lemon in the house, I can't help you.
Want really crisp skin? Leave the rubbed bird uncovered in the fridge overnight. The skin dries out and goes crackly in the oven.
4. Roast it
- Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan, gas 6). Take the chicken out of the fridge while it heats.
- Tuck the squeezed lemon halves around the bird and roast for 40-45 minutes for a 1.5kg chicken.
- Check it's cooked: the juices run clear, there's no pink meat, and it's steaming hot all the way through.
- Rest it on the board, loosely covered with foil, for 15-20 minutes, then cut into quarters with the scissors.
Check the thigh, not the breast. Flattening puts the legs right in the heat, but the thickest bit between the thigh and the breast is still the last to cook. Push a thermometer in there and look for 75C. Here's where the probe should go on a whole bird. If it's not there yet, five more minutes. It's not a crisis, it's a timer.
How long to cook a spatchcock chicken
Spatchcocking roughly halves the time of a normal roast. These are for 200C (180C fan, gas 6) and they're a guide - always check it's cooked through.
- 1.2-1.4kg: 35-40 minutes, then rest 15 minutes
- 1.5kg: 40-45 minutes, then rest 15-20 minutes
- 1.7-1.8kg: 45-55 minutes, then rest 20 minutes
- 2kg: 55-65 minutes, then rest 20 minutes
That's the spatchcock chicken cooking time in a nutshell: about 45 minutes for an average bird. Compare that with the hour and a half for a whole one and you've won back enough time to do the washing up. Or not. I'm not your mum.
On the barbecue
Push two soaked wooden skewers diagonally through the bird in an X, from thigh to wing, so it holds flat when you flip it.
Cook it over indirect heat - coals pushed to one side, chicken on the other, lid down. Or roast it for 20 minutes at 160C fan first, then give it 15-20 minutes a side on the grill to char.
What to serve it with
Because it's flat, it cooks in the same time as a tray of potatoes. Put a tray of halved new potatoes in at the same time, on the shelf underneath, and they'll catch the drips.
Add a big green salad, or some greens and gravy if it's a proper Sunday.
Leftovers make the best sandwiches of the week. If you're already hooked on easy chicken dinners, try the one with forty cloves and no vampires.
If it goes wrong
Skin pale and flabby? The bird went in damp, or the oven wasn't fully hot.
Fix: pat it dry with kitchen paper before you rub it, leave it uncovered in the fridge overnight, and give the oven a full 15 minutes to heat up.
Breast done but the thighs still pink? The classic.
Fix: make sure the thighs are turned in and flat, not tucked under. Put it back for 5-10 minutes and check again between the leg and the breast.
Top burning before it's cooked? Usually the honey, sugar or garlic in a marinade catching.
Fix: cover it loosely with foil for the first part of the roast, then take the foil off for the last 15 minutes to crisp up.
Can't get through the backbone?
Fix: you're probably cutting into the bone, not beside it. Move the blades a few millimetres out and follow the edge. Still stuck? Ask the butcher to do it - they'll do it in ten seconds and won't judge you. Much.
Bird won't lie flat?
Fix: press harder on the breastbone until it cracks, then pin it flat with two crossed skewers.
Once you've done it a couple of times, you'll never roast a chicken the round way again.
The round way will feel like posting a letter when you could send a text.
Now go and cook something.
