hi I'm Dan piercer and today we're going
to butterfly and cook a chicken usually
when you buy a chicken like this you can
put it in the oven and roast it and it
will come out juicy in spots but because
it's rounded sometimes it dries out in
other spots the way to get around that
to a certain extent is to open it up and
flatten it
that's called butter flying so this can
be done a couple of different ways what
we're going to do is simply open it up
along the back and spread it out you can
do it with kitchen shears like this you
could even do it depending on your
chicken just with some sturdy scissors
but I like doing it with a knife I find
I have a little more control over it lay
the chicken out so it's on its stomach
with its back up here facing you draw a
line about an inch from the center on
one side and then on the other now
simply go down through the chicken and
through the bones nice and gently so one
side is free if you want to see how it
works with the scissors it's very simple
let me turn it around and work from the
other end but the same sort of thing
what you're doing here is simply
removing the backbone from the chicken
you can use this push stock later on or
you can simply discard it
now take the chicken and spread it open
and press down a bit on it to flatten it
turn it over and let's remove the
wingtips
and they can also be used for stock or
discarded now we have a chicken that's
flat and fairly even in terms of
thickness all the way through that's
going to help it cook evenly both the
breasts and the thighs at the same time
a little bit of oil and then you can add
whatever spices you like salt and pepper
of course and today I'm just going to
use a little bit of lemon pepper and
some paprika of course if you wanted to
make it a Chinese chicken you could use
five-spice Indian chicken use garam
masala or curry if you wanted to make
any other kind of chicken a Mexican
chicken use adobo seasoning it's all
very much the same just whatever flavor
you have the like for the night put it
on the skin side and we've taken a cast
iron pan and heated it up we'll add
another drop of oil so nothing sticks
you don't need very much and then lay
the chicken skin side down in the pan
with that sizzle that's what you want to
hear but another technique that also
helps is to weight the chicken let's
take a little bit of tinfoil
just lay it over the top and we'll take
another pan and just set it on top this
will press that chicken down onto the
surface of the pan and get that nice
crisp Carolyn caramelization on the skin
give it a couple of minutes and then
we'll transfer it turn it over and
transfer it to the oven while the
chickens cook
let's clean up the board anytime you
work with raw chicken clean up as soon
as possible and clean up completely
although there's very little chance of
salmonella poisoning why cake the risk
wash all your boards wash all your
utensils in hot soapy water until they
are clean and then let them dry
okay the chickens been cooking for a
couple of minutes on that side let's
take a look and see what it looks like
that's what you want to see that nice
caramelization turn it on to the other
side and put it into a 350 degree oven
we're going to want to cook it in the
oven for about 15 minutes per pound this
is a four pound chicken it'll cook for
about an hour
okay the chickens been in the oven for
about an hour let's take it out and look
at it
Oh perfect now we can simply take it
so we'll cooked it falls apart and you
can cut it into serving pieces as you
like either into quarters or into
individual pieces as well
skin is nice and crispy the meaty juicy
and perfectly cooked