Roasted Chicken Roaster ~ Spatchcock Style

Spatchcock Chicken Roaster was a big winner at our house tonight. I love to roast my chicken on the grill, but I needed to make a cooking adjustment for this windy cold Winter day. All you need to do is cut out the backbone and press hard on this baby bone side down on the breast to help flatten it out, then season and bake. Soon you will be rewarded with a tender juicy chicken with nice crispy skin. Bingo! I added a small bag of Yukon Gold potatoes to the mix and roasted those babies right on in there with Mr.Roaster. Also this method of cooking makes it so much easier to carve and speeds up the cooking time. You know what, I like this method better because crispy chicken skin and tender juicy chicken is where it's at.

• Chicken Roaster, mine was a little over 8 lbs.
• Mrs.Dash salt free seasoning (tomato, basil, & garlic flavor)
• Yukon Gold gourmet petite potatoes, 1 1/2 lb bag
• garlic flavored olive oil
• freshly ground sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper

The hardest part to this recipe is cutting away the backbone and trust me it's not that hard. My Stud Muffin did well removing it under my supervision. I recommend sharp kitchen scissors or a sharp knife. The average person can easily do this, shame on my Frankeneck for not letting me be able to.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Meanwhile remove inside packet of gizzards, neck and such, rinse bird well inside and out with cold water. Pat dry with paper towels. Place chicken on a large platter back side up. Cut out backbone down one side then the next, follow this on either side of the tail by back legs. I threw my insides and gizzard stuff away, but you could easily simmer it to make a broth for later or to make gravy. 

Sprinkle the chicken liberally with Mrs.Dash seasoning. My potatoes were cleaned and did not need to be washed. I guess gourmet means cleaned, ready to go and perfect. It should be for the price so if you want to save some money you can just wash and cut up a larger potato. Now add the potatoes to a medium size bowl and drizzle the olive oil over the potatoes and add sea salt and black pepper to taste. Mix until coated evenly.

Coat a large roasting pan with cooking spray ~~~ for easier clean up. Place chicken in the center of the pan and scatter potatoes evenly around chicken. I scraped out the excess oil from the potato bowl and spread it evenly on top of the chicken skin.

Every oven is different, but my 8 lb roaster was ready after 90 minutes at 450 degrees. 

If you are cooking for more people you may want to double up on the potatoes. I love how the chicken juices season the potatoes, it makes them extra delicious. Be creative and add a variety of vegetables to roast. Also I'm sure the chicken fat leftover in the pan would make an excellent gravy for this meal. We are trying to watch what we eat so we did not indulge in making gravy for us.