Butterflying a whole chicken is easier than you think. The benefits include reduced cooking time and more versatility in terms of cooking methods. (After all, you cannot simply plop a whole chicken on a barbeque grill — but you can with a butterflied one!)

All you need is a pair of kitchen shears. Then simply place the chicken, breast side down, with the tail facing you. Hold onto the tail as you cut down one side of the backbone, all the way to the head end. Then rotate the bird 180 degrees and cut down the other side of the backbone so that you can remove it completely.

Flip the chicken over, breast side up, and push down on the breast to flatten the chicken. Then use a smooth mallet or rolling pin to pound the chicken until it is more-or-less flat.

If you like, you can tuck in the legs (which admittedly will be a little floppy if you don’t). Make small slits (about 3/4″) on either side of each breast (at the tail end) and tuck the legs in. The skin will rip and give a bit to accommodate the leg ends, but hopefully will not rip all the way through. If it does, don’t worry. The chicken will still taste good!

Recipe: Butterflied & Roasted Chicken with Tarragon
Thrown some veggies into the roasting pan for a one-pot meal. I used some take-away brussel sprouts that had been barely blanched, along with a potato and half a red onion, all cut into more-or-less equal sized pieces. Sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, leeks — use whatever you have on hand — just enough to fill a single layer in the pan.

Roasting at very high temperature gives the veggies appealing (at least to me) blistered edges. But feel free to spoon out your vegetables as soon as you feel they’re done, while you continue to roast the chicken.

1 Tablespoon minced fresh tarragon leaves
2 medium garlic cloves, pressed
Kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 whole chicken, butterflied (I used a 4 pound bird — adjust your cooking time accordingly)
1 teaspoon canola oil

Use a mortar and pestle to create a paste out of the tarragon, garlic and about 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Rub paste over butterflied chicken, pushing some under the skin where you can.

Transfer chicken to a large roasting pan, skin side up. Rub skin with canola oil and season lightly with additional salt and pepper.

Let chicken stand at room temp while you preheat oven to 500F.

Roast for 10-12 minutes per pound until chicken skin is golden and crisp and juices run clear. Transfer to a serving platter and let rest for at least 10 minutes before cutting into serving pieces.

Wine Match:This has Pinot Noir written all over it for me — preferably one from Burgundy!