How To Spatchcock Chicken, According To Alton Brown

Alton Brown is known for his humorous and knowledgeable manner and the use of culinary techniques that are backed by science. His popular television show "Good Eats" ran for 16 seasons in the early 2000s, and he has gone on to host popular shows such as "Cutthroat Kitchen" and "Iron Chef America." He has some amazing cooking tips for home chefs, so when Brown shows us an easy way to prepare a whole chicken, we listen and take notes. There are important differences between butterfly and spatchcock cuts of poultry, and Brown favors spatchcocking for a whole chicken.

Ever the approachable teacher, in a post on his Instagram, Brown is wearing a bathrobe which he refers to as a "dressing gown," and is standing behind a cutting board with a whole raw chicken atop it. He has two kitchen tools close to hand: a boning knife and kitchen shears. He starts by flipping the chicken so that the breast side is down and the backbone is facing up. Brown says to look for the "pope's nose," which is the small, triangular-shaped fatty flap at the end of the breast bone. Holding onto the pope's nose, Brown uses a sharp pair of kitchen shears to cut out the backbone by cutting along both sides of the spine. If you are following on at home, make sure to save the spine for stock by placing it in a freezer-proof zip-top bag. 

While most descriptions of how to spatchcock will call for you to press down on the breastbone to crack and flatten the bird, Alton Brown's technique is slightly different. He uses a boning knife to slice through the keel bone's connective tissue, then cracks the whole bird open. Brown then slides his fingers underneath the keel bone, grabbing it by the end and pulling it out entirely. He then flips the chicken back over on the cutting board to show the bird laying flat. It is now ready to be used in recipes like this sheet pan spatchcocked chicken with mushrooms and kale.

There are many benefits to spatchcocking your chicken. Spatchcocking not only leaves you with more space in your oven, but the bird also cooks more quickly and evenly as it's spread out flat and wide. (When you try this approach, don't forget to pat spatchcock chicken dry to help it develop extra crispy skin.) This method can be used to prepare more than just chicken; you can even spatchcock a turkey for Thanksgiving.

Thanks to his decades of practice, Brown spatchcocks the chicken with smooth, practiced movements in under one minute. While we can aspire to this sort of speed and efficiency, many of us will initially be unable to safely work at this speed. For this reason, be cautious and work slowly until you become familiar with Brown's technique.