How to Spatchcock a Chicken

A FANCY, fun-to-say word for a very simple technique, spatchcocking is the secret to perfect chicken. Using scissors to remove the backbone and then butterflying and flattening the bird exposes the legs and thighs so that more of the surface area comes in contact with the pan or grill, making for quicker, more even cooking.

That means no more dried-out breast meat and underdone legs. Every inch of skin turns crisp and golden. Domestic feuding over choice tidbits becomes history: Each bite is now sensational.

When I first encountered this mode of chicken cookery decades ago in a small osteria overlooking Florence, I chalked up the too-good-to-be-true bird—super crisp outside, incredibly moist within—to yet another miracolo italiano. When the same preparation appeared in restaurants closer to home, I came to realize that something else was going on. But it still didn't occur to me that I could reproduce it in my own kitchen.

Then, sometime in the mid-1990s, I watched Jeremiah Tower spatchcock a chicken in under two minutes on the PBS series "Cooking With Master Chefs." So this was the miracle: nothing more than a few scissor snips and a little pressure with the flat of the hand. Since then, whether roasting, broiling or grilling, I spatchcock my chickens—and often my turkeys and game birds, too. A spicy rub or marinade deliciously gilds the lily.

If your goal is a perfect-every-time, crisp-all-over, juicier, quicker, more evenly cooked bird—and why wouldn't it be?—this flattened version is the answer. Spatchcocking is a great technique to know year round, but right now, during grilling season, it's a game changer.

1. Place whole chicken on a work surface, breast-side down, thigh end closest to you. Starting at thigh end, cut along one side of backbone with kitchen shears or strong scissors. Repeat along other side. Discard backbone or save it for stock.

2. Turn the chicken over, breast-side up, and splay it open it like a book on a work surface. Use your hand to press hard on the chicken, cracking the breast bone, to flatten.

3. And that is a spatchcocked chicken, butterflied and flattened for even cooking in the oven, on the grill or under the broiler.