Spatchcock Chicken and Potatoes
This delectable recipe for spatchcock chicken and potatoes is incredibly rich with garlic and rosemary flavor. The perfect Sunday supper!
Jump to:
- ❤️ Why we love this recipe
- 🤔 What does spatchcock mean?
- 🍗 How to spatchcock a chicken
- 🍗 Ingredients you need
- 📝 Ingredient notes and substitutions
- 👩🏻🍳 How to make this recipe
- 🤔 Recipe FAQs
- 🥣 Equipment we used for this recipe
- 🍽️ What to serve with this recipe
- 😍 Other chicken dinner recipes we love!
- ⭐️ We want to know what you think!
- Spatchcock Chicken with Potatoes
❤️ Why we love this recipe
You may have heard about folks spatchcocking their chickens, and even though I started out by thinking could it really make that much of a difference, once I tasted the wonderment that is spatchcock chicken and potatoes, I am fully on Team Spatchcock and here’s why.
The chicken (and I promise I will explain the whole spatchcock part in a sec) cooks in the oven on a bed of garlic and pancetta and rosemary, and the potatoes cook in the same oven on their own tray full of more garlic and pancetta.
And when both are almost done, you put the chicken on the pan with the potatoes and pour the flavorful pan juices over everything and then run it under the broiler. The pan juices will soak into the potatoes and everything will get crispy and OH MY MY.
🤔 What does spatchcock mean?
The word “spatchcock” arose in 18th-century Ireland (yay for my people! ☘️) probably as a a quicker way to say “dispatch a cock” (or cockerel, which is another word for chicken).
And by dispatching that chicken it means removing the backbone so the chicken can be flattened for roasting or grilling. The flattening makes the chicken cook more quickly and evenly.
🍗 How to spatchcock a chicken
Get yourself a nice whole chicken. I love the Bell and Evans chickens if you can find ’em. They are organic and no antibiotics and all that good stuff.
Grab your best pair of kitchen shears ( and if you don’t have kitchen shears, here they are.
You NEED kitchen shears. Once you have them you will wonder how you ever lived without them.)
Turn your chicken over so the breast side is down and cut out the backbone – it’s right there running down the middle of your chicken. Just snip all the way down one side and then all the way down the other and then pull it out.
Now flip the chicken over and cut through that piece of cartilage right at the breastbone. This will let you smoosh down and flatten the chicken out just like a book. If you need more help, here is a great video that shows just how to spatchcock your chicken.
🍗 Ingredients you need
📝 Ingredient notes and substitutions
- Chicken: You are looking for a 3 to 4 pound roasting chicken…any variety is fine.
- Potatoes: We like using baby potatoes for this recipe, but you can use big potatoes that you cut into 1-2 inch chunks. We recommend Yukon Gold or butter potatoes – no peeling needed!
- Pancetta: Look for this bacon-like meat near the salami and sausage in your supermarket, or ask at your deli counter.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities and nutritional information.
👩🏻🍳 How to make this recipe
STEP 1: Put one of your oven racks in the middle position and another directly beneath it. Preheat your oven to 400.
STEP 2: Cook up some little potatoes in simmering water until they are just tender. You can either cut them in half before you simmer them or do that when they are done.
STEP 3: Toss your potatoes with a little olive oil. Lay it all out on the sturdiest rimmed baking sheet you can find. Scatter on some peeled garlic cloves and some pancetta (which is a close cousin to bacon – your deli counter will have it).
STEP 4: Spatchcok your chicken! Turn your chicken over so the breast side is down and cut out the backbone – it’s right there running down the middle of your chicken. Just snip all the way down one side and then all the way down the other and then pull it out..
Now flip the chicken over and cut through that piece of cartilage right at the breastbone. This will let you smoosh down and flatten the chicken out just like a book.
STEP 5: Pop your chicken breast side up in an oven proof skillet (cast iron works great!). Tuck a few garlic cloves, some pancetta and some fresh rosemary inside the skin and around and under the chicken, brush it with olive oil and sprinkle on some salt and pepper.
STEP 6: Now! Put the chicken on the middle rack of your oven and the potatoes on the rack directly below and roast it all up until the chicken is just about done, about 45 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 150.
STEP 7: NOW COMES THE MAGICAL PART. Take everything out of the oven, transfer the chicken to the potato pan, and pour the juices from the chicken skillet over everything. Run it under the broiler until everything is browned and crispy.
Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness.
🤔 Recipe FAQs
Pancetta is Italian, salt-cured pork belly that is seasoned with spices like black pepper, garlic, and herbs, but not smoked. It’s like the Italian version of bacon, and usually is sold in packages of tiny cubes which is exactly what we need.
Two things! First of all, it cooks faster than regular roasting. And second, the chicken cooks more evenly, giving you juicier white meat along with the tender dark meat.
You can! Cut them into roughly 1 inch pieces and they will be fine.
Pop your question in the Comments section under the recipe card and I will answer pronto!
🥣 Equipment we used for this recipe
These are some of my favorite kitchen tools! These are Amazon affiliate links, which means I get a little something if you buy through my links at no extra cost to you. (Which helps pay for all that bacon I keep buying! 😄) And I only share things I use and love. I’m so grateful for your support!
- Measuring Cup: We love these angled cups that show the measurements on both the inside and outside of the cup.
- Cutting Board: These sturdy, dishwasher-safe cutting boards come in all different sizes.
- Kitchen Shears: These heavy duty kitchen scissors are great for cutting through chicken bones, lobster shells and so on.
- Large Pot: We have a lot of these but this is our fave!
- Cast Iron Skillet: We use this classic skillet for everything from making a giant chocolate chip cookie to roasting up chicken for this recipe!
- Rimmed Baking Pan: These rimmed baking pans are great for everything from roasting veggies to baking our favorite rum raisin oatmeal cookies.
- Basting Brush: This handy silicone brush is perfect for spreading everything from olive oil to egg wash on whatever you are cooking up.
- Food Scale: We use this for measuring everything from pasta to meat to flour.
- Thermometer: The very best way to measure if something (from steak to chicken and even cakes) is done.
🍽️ What to serve with this recipe
Ah, there is nothing like side dishes alongside a chicken dinner! We love to serve up some whipped cauliflower and/or some carrot mashed potatoes with this dinner.
Some cheesy Southern spoonbread is the perfect side for this recipe. And for dessert? Let’s have cheesecake brownies!
😍 Other chicken dinner recipes we love!
⭐️ We want to know what you think!
If you try this recipe, we would love to hear how it came out for you! I’d be super grateful if you could leave a star rating (you pick how many stars! 🌟 ) and your thoughts in the Comments section below the recipe card.
Spatchcock Chicken with Potatoes
This delectable recipe for spatchcock chicken and potatoes is incredibly rich with garlic and rosemary flavor. The perfect Sunday supper!
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- One 3 pound chicken
- 20 cloves of garlic, peeled
- 5 ounces of pancetta, cubed
- 1 pound fingerling or baby potatoes, scrubbed
- 2–3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
- Salt and pepper
- ¼ cup olive oil
Instructions
- Put your oven shelves on the middle rack and the rack right under the middle and preheat your oven to 400.
- Place the potatoes in a large pot of water, bring to a boil and simmer until just cooked, about 15-20 minutes. Drain, let them cool until you can handle them and cut them in half. Toss with a tablespoon of olive oil.
- Brush a rimmed baking sheet with another tablespoon or so of olive oil and place the half the garlic cloves, almost all of the pancetta and all of potatoes (skin down) on the pan.
- Spatchcock your chicken! Turn it breast side down and cut out the backbone. Flip it over and snip the cartilage right above the breastbone until the chicken lies flat.
- Tuck some of the garlic cloves, a few pieces of pancetta and the rosemary under the skin of the drumsticks, thighs, and breast. Brush the chicken with a little more olive oil and season all over with salt and pepper.
- Add the rest of the olive oil to a large cast iron pan. Put most of the remaining garlic cloves in the pan cloves place your spatchcocked chicken on top of them. Scatter the remaining garlic cloves and pancetta around the chicken.
- Put the chicken on the middle rack of your oven and the pan with the potatoes on the rack right under.Roast for about 45 minutes or until an instant read thermometer is at 150 degrees, turning potatoes halfway through the cooking time.
- Remove both pans from the oven and turn it up to broil.
- Place chicken on top of potatoes. Pour the pan juices from the skillet over everything.
- Broil for approximately 6 minutes or until the chicken skin has crisped (watch it carefully so it doesn’t char).
- Let it all rest for 10 to 15 minutes, carve it up and serve!
Notes
-
- Chicken: You are looking for a 3 to 4 pound roasting chicken…any variety is fine.
-
- Potatoes: We like using baby potatoes for this recipe, but you can use big potatoes that you cut into 1-2 inch chunks. We recommend Yukon Gold or butter potatoes – no peeling needed!
-
- Pancetta: Look for this bacon-like meat near the salami and sausage in your supermarket, or ask at your deli counter.