davepolaschek

This is the description of how Jacques Pépin recommends to butterfly a chicken (its technique #145 in Complete Techniques). I find it works better for me than Alton Brown's method, but I skip the steps to secure the leg. I originally wrote this in January of 2006.

Ingredients

• One broiler/fryer chicken – roughly three pounds

Directions

• Wash chicken, remove giblets, and pat dry.
• Place chicken on its side on a cutting board, and cut through the backbone on one side of the neck with a sturdy knife.
• Pull the chicken open and separate the backbone by cutting on the other side of the neck bone, down to the tail.
• Place the chicken skin-side down, and flatten it with a meat-pounder.
• Remove the shoulder bones that stick up by cutting at the joint.
• Remove the rib cage from each side of the chicken.
• (optional) Make a small cut at the joint which separates the thigh from the drumstick. Don't cut all the way through, but you can cut down to the bone.
• (optional) Cut a hole through the skin between the point of the breast and the thigh.
• (optional) Push the tip of the drumstick through the hole to secure the leg.
• Cook on a grill or in a broiler about 15 minutes per side (at 450F).

Preparation time: 5 minutes

#recipe #technique

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