I Spatchcocked a Chicken and Survived

Time to bust out the kitchen shears and a can-do attitude

May 25, 2025

I am a roasted chicken girl to my core but have been scared to perform the ultimate maneuver for roasted chicken—spatchcocking—my entire life. Well, no more.

Roasting a chicken is a routine occurrence for me, obviously ideally done on a Sunday when you have a little bit (but not an excessive amount) of time to spare. Usually, I simply pat it dry, rub some olive oil over it, season it with salt and pepper, roast it with some vegetables, and call it a day.

But reader, I was destined for more a couple of weeks ago when I decided it was high time to master (or at least try) the act of spatchcocking—a task that is equal parts crucial and intimidating. The mission of spatchcocking is simple: Get a crispy bird that cooks quickly and evenly. In other words: Cut your chicken in half and get it to lay flat in a cooking vessel like a skillet or roasting pan.

First, a little bit of background about spatchcocking. Spatchcocking is a technique that removes the backbone and breaks the breastbone of poultry. If you ask very nicely, a butcher can do this in their sleep when you buy a chicken. But it can also be done at home as long as you have the right equipment, some positive thinking, and a healthy amount of grit.

While I have wanted to try spatchcocking for a long time, it wasn’t until I started reading

Samin Nosrat

’s “Salt Fat Acid Heat” last year that I really started to get the itch to saw through a chicken’s backbone. This book came out in 2017, so obviously I am very behind. Not to be dramatic, but THIS BOOK HAS CHANGED MY LIFE! Samin is so good at her job, and you can tell it by the way she writes! She likes to write in simple sentences that use facts (yes, your food almost always needs more salt—it is simply a scientific fact!) to describe how to best cook food without making it seem like nerdy science or boring. You could easily spend hours just reading this book cover to cover, but I especially like how Samin writes about chicken. This page alone with step-by-step directions gave me the confidence to spatchcock my girl!

I also made Samin’s famous buttermilk-brined chicken recipe that’s not even a recipe—it’s literally just marinating a chicken in a little bit of buttermilk with salt dissolved in it. Put it in your chicken-cooking vessel of choice (mine is this big Staub baking dish that I somehow got on sale at Sur La Table for like $25 a few years ago?!) and let the buttermilk do her thing.

This is the result.

And this was dinner. Enough said.

I botched carving the chicken but nothing that our good friend salsa verde can’t save.

You’re gonna need the right stuff

Right now you might be thinking, “Geez! That seems so easy! What’s the big deal?” And you’re right! But, if you want to properly deconstruct a chicken, you need the right equipment.

More precisely, you absolutely need these OXO poultry shears. These things slide through anything (like you know—a chicken joint) like butter, and made the whole task as easy as could be. They are also magnetic so that they slide apart and together, making them a breeze to clean and will eliminate any and all salmonella concerns. (A very real concern! Also don’t you dare wash your chicken unless you want your entire kitchen to turn into a giant petri dish of bacteria.)

The other thing you’re going to need: A sound mind and positive thinking. Keep your cool and stay the course.

After patting my chicken dry with paper towels, I laid her breast-side down on a big half sheet pan. I took a deep breath and worked up the nerve to just start cutting—trying to cut a straight line down the back. Once I reached the end of the backbone, I turned her around and cut the other side of the backbone. Once the backbone is gone, you’re halfway done.

Now it was time to break the breastbone. I initially struggled to press down hard enough on the chicken to do so. Then I used a little trick I learned from

carla lalli music

to make it easier. I turned the chicken over so that the breasts were facing up and snipped both sides of the breastbone with my shears, essentially pulling the breastbone out a little bit. I flipped the chicken back over and pressed on the breastbone until I heard it break.

Done. Mission accomplished.

Use your chicken as you normally would for a million use cases: Roasted with vegetables, soups, salads, sandwiches, nachos, quesadillas, etc. etc.

ASPARAGUS SEASON still continues to go strong. I will be forever perplexed about how New Jersey produces the world’s most insane produce, but in the meantime, look at these thick, juicy guys!