Butterflied Chicken

This pan is the workhorse of my kitchen.  TJMaxx acquisition and a Jamie Oliver brand! Not expensive, sturdy handles, oven safe, strong lid, stove top use, wide opening and not too tall on the sides. 

Just pretend I was using pull apart kitchen shears and not paper scissors pulled out of the drawer to cut out the backbone.  That photo on the right is kinda horrific....but just trying to show how the raw chicken lays flat.

Brown the bottom of the split chicken on the stove top.   Pan then goes into the oven to finish roasting.  No need to mess with trying to turn awkward large pieces of food.

After browning, add chopped onions, carrots, celery, about 1/4 C all purpose flour and about 3 cups (HOT) chicken or vegetable stock or in a pinch use water-it will still have wonderful flavor from the roasted chicken.  Potatoes could be added or on a separate pan to roast to make this a complete oven meal.

Place a lid on and let it simmer at 350' for an hour +.  The legs should wiggle easily or a thermometer into the thigh should read 160'.  The nice thing about large roaster chickens is they can sit in the oven and just keep getting more and more tasty and tender.  No need to hover over the stove worrying if it will overcook.

Butterflied chicken is the perfect flat surface to hold flavorful sauces too! No turning or dripping and losing all that yummy goodness.

ALABAMA WHITE BBQ SAUCE

1/2 C Mayonnaise

2 Tb +/- your favorite hot sauce (Sriracha is what I've been using)

2 Tb cider vinegar

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp table salt or less if you salted the chicken before cooking

1/4 + ground cayenne pepper (optional)

  Mix together and pour over a completely roasted, grilled or smoked chicken.  Let it all sit for about 15 minutes before carving and the pieces get all slurpy bathed in rich mild to spicy sauce.

 Photo below is the oven roasted sticky sweet BBQ version of butterflied chicken.