Butterflied Roasted Chicken

Name: Butterflied Roasted Chicken
Yield: 4
Cuisine: American

Features:

Cuisine:

American

550
Serves 4
Medium

Ingredients

1 chicken, about 1.5-1.7 kg
50 g butter
Salt
Pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
For brine:
1.6 l cold water (or 8 cups)
4 tbsp salt
2 tsp peppercorns
2 tbsp sugar
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme
2 cloves garlic

Directions

Roasted chicken should have a crispy flavorful crust, fragrant and salty enough, tender and succulent meat (as well as breast meat!).

I wish I always ended up with a prefect chicken. But sometimes I end up with dry breast meat or slightly burned skin.

Try roasting a butterflied chicken using this recipe. I promise you will end up with a perfectly cooked chicken!

P.S. The recipe is very easy and logical, just as I like them to be 🙂

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Steps

1 Done	If briefly, we are going to cook the chicken as follows: first, we are going to soak the chicken in a special brine, then cut and butterfly it, season with spices and roast in the over. That means, that we will have to start cooking in the evening.
2 Done	Preparing the brine. Pour 400 ml (2 cups) water in a pot. Add salt and sugar and bring to a boil. Salt and sugar will dissolve by the moment of boiling. As soon as the water starts boiling, turn off the heat.
3 Done	Crush every clove of garlic. Place a clove on a cutting board, place the flat side of a broad knife over the garlic clove and press it against the clove to crush it.
4 Done	Fill dried thyme into a cotton sachet.
5 Done	To the boiled water, add garlic, bay leaf, peppercorns and thyme. Cover with lid and let stand for 30 min at room temperature.
6 Done	Add 1.2 l (6 cups) cold water to the brine. The colder thw water is, the sooner we will be able to use the brine. Place the chicken into the completely chilled brine.
7 Done	Take a pot or a container big enough for the chicken. The bigger the container is, the more brine you will need. So, if your container is quite big, double the recipe for brine.
8 Done	Place the chicken into the container and pour enough brine to cover the entire chicken. Refrigerate overnight (or at least for 4 hours). Soaking will make the chicken more succulent and fragrant.
9 Done	Take out the chicken and pat dry with paper towel. Heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
10 Done	Removing the spine. Place the chicken, breast-side down, on a board so the back is facing up and the drumsticks are pointing towards you. Cut out the spine of the chicken by cutting along both sides of the spine using a pair of sharp kitchen shears or a big knife.
11 Done	Butterflying the chicken. Spread the chicken's legs apart and flip it over so it's skin side up. Press down firmly on the chicken's breastbone for the chicken to lie quite flat.
12 Done	Carefully slide your fingers between the breast and the skin to make space for butter. Separate the skin on legs as well. Work slowly and carefully in order not to tear the skin. It separates very easily.
13 Done	Cut the butter into 2-3 mm thick slices and place them over the breast and legs meat beneath the skin distributing them as evenly as possible. This makes the meat more tender.
14 Done	Drizzle the chicken with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Rub the chicken to distribute seasoning evenly all over skin.
15 Done	Place the butterflied chicken on a roasting pan with the cut side lying flat and the skin side facing up.
16 Done	Place the chicken right in the middle of the oven.
17 Done	Cook for 20 min at 200 degrees Celsius. During this time the cold chicken will warm up.
18 Done	Reduce the temperature to 180 degrees Celsius. Cook until done. Spoon the fat and juices occasionally to baste the chicken.
19 Done	Time of cooking depends on the weight and and the kind of a chicken. A country chicken may take more time to be done. I usually take a free-range chicken weighting about 1.5-1.7 kg. The cooking time for such chicken is 1 h 20 min.
20 Done	Check the chicken for doneness – the skin should be brown. Take the chicken out and cut the skin between the leg and the breast to check whether the meat is pink or not. If yes – cook for another 15 min. If not – check the leg meat with a knife to see if there still is pink meat or not. If not – your chicken is done. If yes – cook for another 10 min.
21 Done	When the chicken is done, take it out and loosely cover with foil. Poke some ventilation holes in the foil. Let the chicken stand for 15 min before serving for the meat to become more tender. How to serve: Serve hot complimented with side dishes. How to keep: Can be kept refrigerated for 2-3 days. You can use it for making sandwiches, salads and, as a filling, pies.