spatchcock!

Since I already have chicken on the brain, this seems as good a time as any to discuss my favorite food verb of all time: SPATCHCOCK.

Really, it's like butterflying, but you cut all the way through. Also known as "cutting a chicken in half."

But just saying "tonight's chicken will be cut in half" isn't nearly as evocative, is it?

SPATCHCOCK!

Incidentally, besides being fun to say, it helps the chicken cook much faster, and if you're going to serve the darn thing to two people, it's just as easy to cut it beforehand as it is to try to carve the thing afterward. You do need special equipment: a pair of poultry shears. I wouldn't try to hack through a chicken's backbone with your average chef's knife or santoku. The other thing spatchcocking enables you to do is to brown the chicken in a pan on top of the stove before putting it in the oven for roasting. I did a side-by-side test once and at least on my chicken, that step didn't seem to make a bit of difference. This isn't Mythbusters: try it for yourself.

(incidentally, those orange things on the side are carrots that I waffle-cut on the mandoline; that one I can save you the trouble on; don't bother)

Comments

[Carolyn Burns Bass]

I was going to ask you about the waffle-cut carrots. So you don't recommend the mandolin waffle cutter huh? Not that I would ever use it... just asking.