Whole Butterflied Roasted Chicken

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My friend Dave sent me a link to a fantastic web page that described how NOT to roast chicken. The big question was, to brine or not to brine. I am a firm believer in butterflying the chicken so that part was a no brainer.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/05/how-to-roast-a-chicken-butterflied-tips.html?ref=carousel
I read the article through and decided to use a thermometer (which I don’t usually do for chicken). I needed to cook the chicken breast to 150 degrees as described in the article to see if the legs and thighs would be cooked through. I also wanted to find out how long it took for the breast meat to reach 150 degrees.
Even though the article states that you don’t need to brine the chicken, I decided to brine my chicken to insure that the breast meat will be juicy as well as flavor the chicken all the way through and not just the exterior.

I roasted the chicken in a 400 degree oven and it took 47 minutes to reach 150 degrees. It was still a bit pale so I placed it under the broiler for a couple of minutes to get a little color on the skin. It really didn’t work as well as I had hoped. It only darkened the protruding parts of the chicken. Following the instructions as stated in the article, I removed it from the oven even though it didn’t look done. When I cut into the chicken it wasn’t cooked all the way through.

After my experiment... These are my thoughts,

• I would still brine the chicken if I had the time, to insure that the breast meat was moist.
• I would butterfly the chicken all of the time.
• I would leave out the thermometer and roast the chicken in a 400 degree oven for 50 minutes to an hour or until the skin is golden brown.

WHOLE BUTTERFLIED ROASED CHICKEN
5 ½ pound whole chicken, back removed
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. kosher salt
½ tsp. black pepper

1. Remove the back bone with a kitchen scissors or a cleaver (this is what I used).
2. Brine the chicken (recipe below)
3. Dry well with paper towels
4. Coat chicken evenly with 1 Tblsp. olive oil.
5. Season both sides with salt and pepper
6. Place skin side up in a foil lined sheet pan with a sturdy cookie cooling rack, which has been sprayed with non-stick spray (for easy clean up).
7. Roast in a 400 degree oven for 50 minutes to an hour, until the skin is golden brown.

BRINE
½ cup kosher salt
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 gal. water
Dissolve the salt and sugar in water. Place chicken in the brine, breast side down and let sit in the fridge overnight.

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