A WHOLE DANG CHICKEN + a really delightful salad
WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT. **If raw meat gives you the ick then this is not the recipe for you.**
We’re gonna make a spatchcocked chicken. HOW FUN!?!?!!! A whole chicken in any form is, without a doubt, my absolute favorite thing to make. We (I) make some form of an entire birdie at least 3x a month FOR REAL. It might seem intimidating but it really could not be easier. It’s almost impossible to mess up (but if you do mess up that’s okay, just try again!) and hopefully after reading this you will feel just as excited about a whole dang bird as me.
Spatchcocking a chicken is just taking the backbone out of it so it will lie flat in the pan when you bake it. This ensures that most, if not all, of the skin is facing up and coming into contact with the dry heat of the oven, which gives you way more delicious crispy skin to get excited about. It also cooks just a lil bit faster and more evenly. Now my favorite version of this is always just very well salted but in this recipe we are gonna make a sumac citrus and chili butter to stuff into the skin which is also dumb yummy.
My hope for this newsletter is that you will learn 2 fun new things by making this! The first is how to spatchcock and cook a whole chicken. The second is how to make a compound butter which you can make infinite iterations of and use in an unending number of ways.
Last tip is while the chicken is in the oven you can do everything for the salad so that everything will be done around the same time.
Okay now let’s get to my favorite part: HOW TO SPATCHCOCK A WHOLE DANG CHICKEN!!!
me + my other boyfriend
ingredients
~serves 2-4
FOR THE CHICKEN
3-4 lb whole chicken
3 tsp salt
FOR THE COMPOUND BUTTER
1/2 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 tsp ground sumac
2 tsp red chili flakes
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 garlic cloves, grated
1 tsp salt
FOR THE CRISPY SHALLOTS
2 shallots, sliced as thinly and evenly as you can. this is a great time to pull out your mandoline!
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tbs sesame seeds
FOR THE SALAD
1 grapefruit, peeled and supremed (which is a fancy way of saying “segmented”), or peeled and thinly sliced into rounds. dealers choice! **DO NOT DISCARD THE PEEL OR PITH
1 blood orange or your favorite orange variety, peeled and supremed or peeled and thinly sliced into rounds. **DO NOT DISCARD THE PEEL OR PITH
1 ball of burrata
1/4 bulb of fennel, thinly shaved (another good time to use your mandoline)
2 stalks of celery, thinly sliced on the bias (which is a fancy way of saying on the diagonal. we are learning lot’s of cooking vocab!)
FOR THE SALAD DRESSING
1/2 cup shallot infused olive oil, this will be leftover from the crispy shallots. if you don’t quite have 1/2 cup left just add a bit more regular olive oil until you get 1/2 cup total oil
1/4 cup citrus juice, I used the juice from the peel and pith of the grapefruit and orange. but you can also just buy an extra orange and use that juice.
1/4 cup champagne vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 clove of garlic, grated or very finely minced
1 tbs honey
1 tsp salt
lots of fresh ground black pepper
how to spatchcock a chicken
each step is listed under the picture!
TOOLS
All you need is a chicken and a pair of kitchen sheers. You can definitely use a sharp chefs knife to do this as well. I would say using kitchen sheers is going to be a bit easier, especially for beginners.
The chicken above is laying breast side up. A good way to tell is that the wing tips are facing up and away from the table.
If the chicken you bought came with the neck, giblets, etc. stuffed inside just reach in and pull them out before cutting into it.
STEP ONE
We are gonna flip our chicken so that the underside/backbone of it is facing up and the breast side is lying face down on the cutting board. (pictured
Next you are going to locate the backbone. I made a cut on each side of the backbone in the picture above so that you can see where it is. It is just directly in the center of the back, you will be able to feel and see the end of it if you go exploring a lil down there!
STEP TWO
Next you are going to make a cut down either side of the back bone to remove it. It should feel fairly easy to cut down each side. You will encounter a bit of bone that you will have to cut through, especially around the ribcage area (which is about half way up). Once the back bone is out you can discard it or freeze it and use it for stock later.
STEP THREE
Now flip the chicken so the breast side is facing up. Lay it so the legs, wings, and breasts are all fanned out and laying as flat as possible.
Then place your palm over the center of the breasts (pictured above on the left) and using slight pressure push the heel of your palm down on the upper center of the bird. You might hear and feel a bone pop and the chicken should now lie much flatter on the cutting board (pictured above on the right).
Now you have a perfectly spatchcocked chicken!
instructions for cooking your chicken
At least 3 hours (and up to 24 hours) before you plan on cooking your chicken: pat it down with a paper towel all over to dry it off and then sprinkle the 3 tsp of salt all over it, top and bottom. Place breast side up in the fridge uncovered until ready to cook (the cool dry air of the fridge will help to dry the skin out and it will cook extra crispy).
1 hour before you want to cook your chicken take it out of the fridge to come to room temperature. This will ensure it cooks evenly and will help make stuffing it with the compound butter easier.
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
While the oven preheats MAKE THE COMPOUND BUTTER: mix together the room temp butter, salt, ground sumac, chili flakes, lemon juice, lemon zest, and grated garlic until very well incorporated. If the lemon juice wont fully incorporate thats okay, just stir until mostly mixed.
This is how my butter looked after mixing everything in. It turns a very pretty deep pink!
5. Stuff the compound butter inside of the skin by first slipping your hand under the skin at the top of the breast, to release the skin from the meat. then do the same thing at the top of the breasts and on the thighs. Then you will more easily be able to spread the butter under the skin. Next, place your prepped chicken skin and breast side up in a baking dish or large oven safe pan.
6. Place the chicken in the oven with the legs facing the back left corner of the oven and bake for 20 minutes. (The back corners of the oven are the hottest and the legs and thighs take the longest to cook. Thats why we do it this way).
7. After 20 minutes baste the chicken using a basting brush or by simply spooning the fat and melted butter that accumulated in the bottom of the pan all over the skin. Then place back in the oven with the legs now facing the back right of the oven and bake for another 35-45 minutes, to check for doneness you can make a small slit in the skin between the thigh and breast and if the juices run clear it’s done. If they are pink cook for another 5 min or until a meat thermometer reaches 155 degrees Fahrenheit.
I say 155 degrees instead of 165 degrees (which is the standard temp for chicken) because the chicken is so large and cooking at such a high heat for so long that it is going to continue to cook for another 10-15 minutes even after you take it out of the oven. So taking it out a few degrees early is going to ensure you have an insanely juicy chicken that will still have no chance of being under cooked.
8. Let the chicken rest for at least 15 minutes before serving.
instructions for the salad
Once you have everything prepped you can go ahead and assemble the bulk of the salad in a bowl. Start with the greens then place the orange and grapefruit pieces, sliced fennel, and sliced celery in a random assortment on top of the greens. Add the ball of burrata in the center.
Next we are gonna MAKE THE CRISPY SHALLOT TOPPING:
- Start by placing the 1/2 cup of olive oil along with the thinly sliced shallots in a small to medium size sauce pot over medium heat on the stove. Cook for 10-12 minutes. (starting them in cold oil will help to get a more even crispiness)
- Stir the shallots every so often with a metal spoon or fork to make sure they are all getting good contact with the oil.
- While they cook set a mesh sieve over a heat proof small bowl and add the 2 tbs of sesame seeds to the sieve.
- After 10-12 minutes the shallots should have shrunk in volume and become golden brown. Before they become too brown drain them over the sesame seeds letting the shallot infused oil catch in bowl. Do not discard the drained oil. (You want to drain them before they are too dark because, like the chicken, they will continue to cook after taken off the heat.)
- Dump the shallots and sesame seed onto a paper towel lined plate to cool.
These are the stages of the shallots while cooking, from left to right: when the shallots first get placed over the heat, about half way through cooking, and the finished product!
3. Next MAKE THE DRESSING:
- Using the (cooled) leftover shallot oil just mix all the rest of the ingredients into it. Frying the shallots in the oil should have given it a really nice, slightly sweet, and deeply savory flavor. add a touch more salt, vinegar, or honey if you think it needs it!
4. Toss the salad with the dressing then plate it and sprinkle each serving with TONS of the crispy shallots and sesame seeds. Serve alongside the roast chicken.
