Christine’s Spatchcock Roasted Chicken for Paz

September 29, 2008 | Filed Under Christine Cooks blog, Fellow Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Poultry | 23 Comments

Please help me welcome guest blogger, Christine of Christine Cooks. Thank you, Christine!

Paz

I am so thrilled that Paz has asked me to be a guest blogger while she recovers from surgery. What a kind and caring person my friend Paz is; she checks in from time to time just to see how I’m doing, and she never fails to leave a comment on my garden blog where I love surprising her with a flower, plant, or critter she hasn’t seen before.

When I posted my Sunday Night Whole Roasted Chicken recipe a while back, Paz fairly sang its praises from the rooftops of New York and re-posted it on her blog, creating quite a bit of traffic my way. That’s just the way she is, thoughtful and generous. And because Paz was so excited about my roasted chicken, I thought it would be fun to show her another method that I think she will find funny and entertaining: Spatchcocking.

Now before your minds head to the gutter, spatchcocking (and, please do visit that link for some very funny, veddy British definitions) is simply a method by which a chicken or other fowl is opened and spread flat, enabling it to cook faster and more evenly. To achieve this, you remove the backbone of the bird, lay it flat, breast side up, and crack the breast bone to flatten it out.

That’s it. Rub it all over with olive oil then sprinkle with your favorite herbs, kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Put it in a cast iron skillet with a glug or two of wine (red or white, it’s your choice) and roast it to perfection. Easy, simple and delicious! If you like giblets, tuck them in and around the bird so they roast together. Oh, and don’t forget to baste your bird with those tasty pan juices that will magically appear at the bottom of the skillet. Have fun with this one Paz!

To spatchcock a chicken:

Put a whole chicken, breast side down, on a cutting board.

Using poultry shears or other strong kitchen shears, begin cutting up one side of the backbone beginning at the tail end. You may have to use a bit of pressure to cut through some of the bones, especially when you get to the bones that connect the wings to the body.

When one side is fully cut, do the same thing on the other side of the backbone, starting again from the tail end.

When the backbone is completely severed from the chicken, set it aside and inspect the chicken where you made the cuts. Remove any small bones or shards laying about that could come loose in the cooking process and get stuck in a guest’s teeth or, worse, in his/her throat.

Small bone inspection done, turn your chicken over and spread it out on the cutting board as shown in the photo.

Using your hand or a meat mallet, push hard on the breast bone until it cracks or gives to the point that the chicken lies very flat on the board.

There. You’re done. You’ve just spatchcocked a chicken. Now, cook it…

Christine’s Spatchcock Roasted Chicken for Paz
Serves 4-6 chicken-loving people or 6-8 daintier eaters

Christine Cooks

Ingredients:
1 (4-5 pound) broiler or fryer chicken preferrably with giblets (free-range, veg fed is best)
Good olive oil
2 tablespoons (or more) dried herbs – I used Made in Napa Valley’s Meritage Rub, which I highly recommend
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
olive oil spray for the pan
1/4 cup (a few glugs) of your favorite red or white wine

Preparation:
Rub the bird all over with good olive oil. Do the same with the giblets and the backbone if you are using them (see Cook’s Notes.)

Sprinkle all over with the herb rub, salt and pepper, pressing into the skin to help them adhere.
Lightly spray a large cast iron skillet (I used a 12-inch one, an old Wagner Ware, without which I would be one unhappy cook) with the olive oil.

Place the chicken breast side up in the skillet, arranging the legs and wings so it all fits snugly. The underside (inside) of the chicken should be flat in the skillet.

Tuck the giblets around and under the wings and neck area and lay the backbone under the legs as shown in the photo.

Pour the wine over the bird, cover the skillet with foil and place in a 375-degree oven for 45 minutes.

At the 45-minute mark, remove the foil from the skillet and baste your bird, giblets and all, with the pan juices.

Close the oven and roast for 15 more minutes, basting once again during that time.

Stick an instant-read temperature gauge in the meatiest part of the thigh; a nicely done chicken should register 160 degrees farenheit and the juices from the joints should run clear.

Remove the skillet from the oven and baste the chicken one more time before transferring it to a cutting board where you will let it rest for 10 minutes during which time the temperature will rise to 165 degrees. Remove the giblets to a plate.

Pour the pan drippings into a fat separator and decant into a warm serving bowl or pitcher.

To cut into serving pieces, using kitchen or poultry shears, divide the bird into two halves, each having a breast, wing and leg. Separate the entire leg-thigh piece and finally cut the breast into two equal halves, cross-wise, leaving the wing attached to one of the pieces. This will give you three pieces from each side, which will nicely feed six hungry people. For the more dainty eaters, separate the thigh from the leg, thus being able to share your dish with 8 guests.

Cook’s Notes:

> I love giblets and I love the tasty morsels of meat on the backbone of a chicken, especially the tiny tenderloins. If you can find them, see if you don’t agree with me.

> The corn photo? Sometimes a food photo is so delectable, it must be shared. Besides, I know Paz will like it.

Pollo con Papas a la Florencia/Florencia’s Chicken and Potatoes

June 16, 2008 | Filed Under Argentinean Recipes, Christine Cooks blog, Cuisines, Fellow Bloggers, From Argentina with Love blog, Potatoes, Poultry, South American Cuisine | 14 Comments

I’ve written about how Christine’s Sunday Night Whole Roasted Chicken tastes so good that I’m unable to spare a few minutes to take a photo for the blog. I’ve made the roasted chicken several times since writing about it on the blog, and each time, I want to eat it immediately! No time to stop and take photos. Forget that.

Well, I’ve found another winning roasted chicken recipe that Rebecca of From Argentina with Love shares with her readers — Chicken and Potatoes. When I finished making the Chicken and Potatoes, I mustered all my human strength not to eat the chicken immediately. This time I was able to spare a few seconds to photograph the Chicken and Potatoes. Just barely. This simple Roasted Chicken dish was soooo tasty. As Rebecca described, the potatoes did have an extra tang, which made it extra special. She shares the secret to the delicious potatoes in the recipe below.

So… Now, I have two AWESOME roasted chicken recipes. Yay for me!

Paz *excited*

Pollo con Papas a la Florencia/Florencia’s Chicken and Potatoes

From Argentina with Love

Rebecca’s note:

Florencia made this for me as one of my first meals the first time I met her, and I had never tasted anything like it! Since then, it’s one she knows will be a hit, and she makes it anytime we visit. It’s one of the most satisfying meals I can think of–and the simplest to prepare! The secret is the white wine–it gives the potatoes an extra tang.

one whole chicken, cleaned

coarse salt

pepper

one lemon

olive oil

1 cup dry white wine

5 cloves garlic, peeled but still whole

5 russet potatoes, peeled and sliced into ‘fries’

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Rinse the chicken and remove the packet inside. Put the chicken in a baking pan, and drizzle olive oil over the chicken, rubbing it into the skin. Squeeze the juice of the lemon over the chicken, and stuff the lemon halves into the cavity. Salt and pepper the chicken to taste.

Meanwhile, put the cut potatoes in a bowl and drizzle in olive oil, using your hands to mix them around so that they are lightly coated in oil. Salt liberally.

Put the potatoes around the chicken in the casserole dish. Place the garlic cloves around in the potatoes. Bake for about 40 minutes. After this time, pull the chicken out, and pour the wine over the potatoes. Increase the oven temperature to 450 degrees. Return the chicken to the oven, rotating the pan, for about 30 minutes more, testing for doneness using a meat thermometer, 170 degrees.

(Christine’s) Sunday Night Whole Roasted Chicken

March 10, 2008 | Filed Under Christine Cooks blog, Poultry | 20 Comments

I swear! There was a succulent chicken (a cornish hen) with deliciously cooked onions and portabella mushrooms swimming in the seasoned roasted chicken juices in the pan above. Really. Oh, my goodness! It was too delicious for words.

Christine of Christine Cooks made roasted chicken and one look at her chicken had my mouth watering. I finally had a chance to make it. So, where is the chicken in the photo, you ask? Well, after preparing this easy roasted chicken dish, we were starved. I didn’t have time to pick up the camera — I didn’t want to pick up the camera. "Food first, photograph later," my stomach commanded. When I finally did get the camera, there was nothing to photograph.

Oh, and Christine, my dogs have asked me to relay their thanks. You suggested frying the gibblets and feeding it to the kitties. Since I have dogs instead of cats, I fed it to my dogs. Oh, they were so happy.

Perhaps next time I’ll be able to take a photo of my roasted chicken. In the meantime, look here to see what Christine’s tasty roasted chicken looked like. Mmm Mmm good!

Paz

Sunday Night Whole Roasted Chicken
Christine’s original recipe

Ingredients:
1 whole fryer chicken, 3-4 pounds
1 large Meyer lemon
1 heaping tablespoon Italian herb seasoning
1 tablespoon smoked paprika, I used sweet but if you like it spicy, go for it
1/2 pound crimini mushrooms, sliced
1 large sweet onion, sliced
1 head of garlic, separated into cloves, peeled and left whole
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Olive oil

Preparation:
Remove the giblets from the cavity of the chicken. (Reserve the giblets for another use or cook them with the chicken. Or fry ‘em up, chop ‘em and give ‘em to your kitties.)
Wash the chicken thoroughly with cold water then pat dry both inside and out.
Rub olive oil over the entire chicken then rub the Italian herbs and the paprika all over the outside.
Slice the lemon in half and squeeze over the chicken. Put the lemons halves inside the cavity.
Sprinkle the chicken body with kosher salt and black pepper.

Truss the chicken by cutting a slit in each side of the vent, then bring a leg across and push the end through the opposite slit. Repeat with the other leg.

Place the sliced onions in the bottom of a cast iron pot or dutch oven and put the chicken on top of the onions.

Scatter the garlic cloves and the mushrooms around the chicken. Drizzle a little more olive oil over the top of the vegetables, cover with a tight fitting lid and place in a 375-degree oven for 45 minutes.

Remove the lid from the pot and continue roasting the chicken another 15 minutes or so, until done. Baste the chicken with the pan juices several times during these last 15 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the pan and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

To serve, slice the chicken and place on warmed plates. Be generous with the garlic and onions, as well as the delicious pan juices. A medley of roasted winter vegetables makes a well rounded meal.

Christine’s Notes:
No potatoes, polenta or pasta accompanied our meal but if I were to serve this to company, oven roasted potatoes, creamy polenta or pappardelle pasta would be a nice touch.

Christine’s Spatchcock Roasted Chicken for Paz

Pollo con Papas a la Florencia/Florencia’s Chicken and Potatoes

(Christine’s) Sunday Night Whole Roasted Chicken

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