Roasted Spatchcock Chicken with Garlic Mustard Crust is the juiciest whole chicken with the crispiest skin. The secret to this unbelievable crispiness? Spatchcock the chicken!
We roasted this chicken by spatchcocking, or butterflying it. We removed the backbone and flattened the bird so that more of the skin is exposed to direct heat.
The convenience of spatchcock chicken is that you are cutting down the cooking time of the whole chicken by almost half. That’s a significant time savings specially when you need to cook for company because the last thing you want is to labor in your kitchen all day, only to be tired to enjoy this spatchcock chicken with family and friends.
We’ve been making this Spatchcock Chicken with Mustard Crust for well over a decade now and last year we actually prepared it for Thanksgiving since it was just the three of us.
To spatchcock a chicken means to butterfly the chicken and that’s not as scary as it sounds. Plus, you can keep the prepped bird in the fridge for up to 3 days and roast it on demand. It’s comforting to know that even when pressed for time, you can still get crispy skin and evenly cooked, juicy chicken using the techniques I’m about to share.
Why Spatchcock a Chicken?
- The cooking time is cut almost in half – it’s a quick way to cook a whole bird.
- Crispy chicken skin. Since the whole bird is flattened – it’s equally exposed to heat, every inch of its skin will evenly brown and develop that perfect crispiness.
- Chicken cooks more evenly because by flattening the chicken, the legs and thighs will be more exposed to the heat and cook in the same time as the breast.
Required Tools to Spatchcock a Chicken
- A pair of good-quality affordable kitchen shears with sharp stainless steel blades that easily come apart for cleaning.
- Boning knife, sharp, made out of high-carbon, stain-free Japanese steel
How to Spatchcock a Chicken
The easy steps for how to spatchcock chicken are explained in great detail in this How to Spatchcock a Chicken post, with pictures included. The summary of how to do it is below:
- Place a whole chicken on the cutting board, breast side down and legs facing away from you.
- Using kitchen shears, cut along one side of backbone with kitchen shears.
- Cut up along the other side, cutting the rib bones as you go until you can completely remove the backbone.
- Remove the backbone.
- Open the chicken out and expose the keel bone.
- Take the sharp end of your boning knife and slide it gently up one side of keel bone being careful not to cut the meat. This is done to disconnect the keel bone from the breast. Once the bone is loosened up, run your finger around each side to pull it away and then pull the keel bone out.
Amazing Mustard Sauce for crusting Spatchcock Chicken
- 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons dry white wine
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon Tabasco hot pepper sauce
- 1 teaspoon herbes de Provence
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Cover the spatchcocked chicken with the prepared sauce. Place it in the pan and in the oven it goes!
What Pan to Roast Spatchcock Chicken
I used a Carbon Steel pan for this recipe. A large one – 12 inches in diameter.
After making this spatchcock chicken there will be no doubt in your culinary mind that spatchcocked chicken makes for the juiciest chicken with the crispiest skin.
Craving more chicken recipes?
Instant Pot Spatchcock Chicken
Peri Peri Portuguese Chicken
Oven Baked Rosemary Chicken Thighs
Herb Roasted Creamy Chicken and Potatoes
Whole chicken, spatchcocked and oven roasted to crispy perfection!
- 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons dry white wine
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon Tabasco hot pepper sauce
- 1 teaspoon herbes de Provence
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 1/2 lb. chicken (1 chicken)
For the crust: Mix all the ingredients (except the chicken) in a small bowl.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Using kitchen shears or a sharp knife, cut alongside the backbone of the chicken to split it open. Spread and press on the chicken with your hands to flatten it.
Using a sharp paring knife, cut halfway through both sides of the joints connecting the thighs and drumsticks and cut through the joints of the shoulder under the wings as well. (This will help the heat penetrate these joints and accelerate the cooking process)
Put the chicken skin side down on a cutting board and spread it with about half the mustard mixture.
Place the chicken flat in a large skillet, skin side up, mustard side down. Spread the remaining mustard on the skin side of the chicken.
Cook over high heat on the stove top for about 5 minutes (this is done in order to heat up the chicken, not to brown the skin).
Next place the skillet in the oven and cook the chicken for about 30 minutes or until meat thermometer reaches 165 and juices run clear.
The chicken should be well browned and dark on top.
Let the chicken rest in the skillet at room temperature for a few minutes, then cut it into 8 pieces with clean kitchen shears.
Cannot wait to try it