Spring Feast

Is there anything better than the aroma of roasting chicken? 

Spatchcocked roasted chicken with Meyer lemons!

Meyer lemons are still available here in our markets, and we substituted them for the regular lemons called for in this dish. If you have never had a Meyer lemon, they are worth seeking out. They may look more like an orange, but their flavor is less acidic than other lemons with a strong lemon flavor. They are very thin skinned and unlike other lemons, you can easily eat the skin of a Meyer. They are worth the premium price you may pay.

Meyer Lemons

It may be spring cleaning time, but a word to the wise, before you clean your oven, make this meal. As much as we loved this chicken, it does splatter everywhere. Perhaps they should have called it “splatter-cocked” chicken instead of “spatchcocked” chicken.  The origins of “spatchcocked” are old English with perhaps some Irish references. (Hey, we didn’t know either and we did an internet search.) It basically means that you cut out the backbone and flatten the poultry of choice for roasting.  By the way, you won’t see us doing a turkey in this method – no platters large enough. 

Spatchcocked Chicken

Use kitchen shears to cut out the back bone of the chicken

Kitchen shears make it a easy job

Back bone removed

Apply pressure to flatten the chicken
 

Slices of lemon under the chicken and under the skin. Ready to go into the oven.

Add the garlic and shallots after 30 minutes.

Roasted and out of the oven. 

Roast Spatchcocked Lemon Chicken

Serves: 4
Active prep time: 20 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Source: marthastewart.com, “Food & Entertaining”

1 whole 4 lb chicken  (** we used a 6 lb chicken)
2 T plus 1 t EVOO, divided
2 lemons, thinly sliced, divided
6 small shallots (6 oz) peeled and quartered lengthwise
** 1 bulb garlic cloves, peeled
** 10 red fingerling pototoes

Preheat oven to 425’F.  Place chicken, breast side down, on a work surface.  Starting at thigh end, cut along 1 side of backbone with kitchen shears.  Turn chicken around; cut along other side.  Discard backbone or save for stock.  Flip chicken, and open it like a book.  Press firmly on breastbone to flatten.

Rub chicken with 1 T oil, and season with 1 T salt and ½ t pepper.  Brush 1T oil in the center of a rimmed baking sheet slightly larger than the size of the chicken, and place half the lemon slices in a single layer on top of the oil.  Place chicken, skin side up, on lemons.  Beginning at the neck end of breast, carefully loosen skin from flesh of breast and thighs with your fingers.  Slide remaining lemon slices under skin in a single layer.

Roast chicken 20 minutes.  Toss shallots with remaining t oil, and scatter around chicken.  Continue to roast until a thermometer inserted into thickest part of breast reaches 165’, 25 to 30 minutes more.
Transfer chicken to a carving board, and let rest 20 minutes.  Cut chicken into 8 pieces, and serve with roasted lemons, shallots and pan juices. 

If using chicken for soup and salad, let chicken cool completely.  Remove and discard skin, lemon under skin, and bones, and shred meat into bite-size pieces.  Chicken, roasted lemons, shallots, and pan juices can be refrigerated up to 2 days.  Store meat and pan juices in separate containers; lemons and shallots can be stored together.

** our changes to the recipe


A salad of spring greens with a tart Dijon vinaigrette complimented the richness of the roasted chicken and vegetables, but really all you need is some toasted bread to soak up the juices. The bread is also wonderful smeared with the roasted garlic. 

A spring feast of roasted chicken with Meyer lemon, shallots, garlic and potatoes.

Meg had the 2009 Francis Ford Coppola Chardonnay, which turned out to be a great choice.  It complimented all the bold flavors without competing with them. She got it on sale for $9.99 but the original price was probably in the $14-15 range.

Francis Ford Coppila Chardonnay

We were going to have some grilled fruit for dessert, but it would have been more than gilding the lily. You know how we love to gild that lily, but we are so sated and happy that we just couldn’t imagine eating another mouthful. (Imagine that.) We will save the recipe for another time.

Our unsolicated and biased opinions:

We made several changes to the original recipe by adding the garlic, potatoes, and Meyer lemons in place of the regular lemons. We also used a 6 pound chicken, which required additional cooking time.  We cooked the chicken and potatoes for 30 minutes, flipped the potatoes, added the shallots and garlic and cooked for another 30 minutes.

You want a good sized rim on the baking sheet to contain the juices. We used a silicon sheet to line the baking sheet, which eliminated the need to oil it.

If the idea of cutting the backbone out of the chicken is daunting, we think chicken quarters would be as wonderful – no weapons required.

This meal takes about an hour to make, is totally “company worthy”, and the only thing stopping us from making it every week is the oven cleaning issue. For those of you with a self-cleaning oven, this may not be a concern, so be sure to invite us over.

We know that we frequently say that a meal was the best ever. We are searching for the right words to adequately describe this wonderful meal without repeating that it was the “best ever”.  Words are failing us. Fix this meal and find some new words for us.