Video

Spatch-what?

That’s right, spatchcock. Also known as butterflying, it’s an age-old term that pertains to any fowl. And it’s a simple technique that you can use to speed up the roasting of a chicken by nearly half the time, and emerge with a perfectly golden, evenly cooked bird.

In my latest Times video, I show you how to spatchcock a chicken, and then roast it after giving the bird a brief sear in a hot skillet. This is my favorite method because it gives you the most golden skin. But for something even simpler, you can also take the flattened, seasoned bird, lay it skin side up in a roasting pan, and simply roast it at 400 or 425 until the juices run clear with the thigh is poked with a knife.

Or, for something a little fancier, try this recipe from Apartment Therapy’s the Kitchn for a spatchcock chicken with an herbed ricotta mixture stuffed under the skin.

You can also cook your butterflied bird under a brick. Here’s my colleague Mark Bittman’s simple recipe.

Lastly, any good butcher will spatchcock a chicken for you if you don’t feel like cutting out the backbone yourself. Just ask, I promise, it won’t make any butcher blush.