I am going to teach you something fancy today. Butterflying a chicken. Sounds fancy, but it's super easy:
1) Place your chicken breast side down
2) With kitchen shears cut along both sides of the backbone, removing and discarding the bone. 3) Flip the chicken over and push the breast bone down with the heel of your hand until you hear a snap, or just think it's snapped.
4) Your chicken should now be laying pretty flat and look very loosely like a butterfly.
Let's get cooking:
Butterflied Rosemary Chicken with Fig Sauce (Adapted from Parents March 2012)
Chicken:
2 Tbs Olive Oil
2 cloves minced garlic
1 Tbs minced fresh rosemary
1 Tbs balsamic vinegar
1 Tbs finely zested lemon peel
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 3.5-4 lb chicken, butterflied
Sauce:
1 cup fig butter (I got mine from Trader Joe's, a butter just means that there is more fruit than any other ingredient, mostly sugar)
3/4 cup apricot preserves
2 Tbs lemon juice
1/2 stem fresh rosemary (keep on the stem, you'll remove before you serve)
1 tsp red pepper flakes (more or less depending on the level of spice you like)
1) Set a rack in the middle of a 400F preheated oven.
2) Line baking pan with foil and then spray with non stick cooking spray.
3) In a bowl mix together 1 Tbs oil and the following 7 ingredients. At this point I smell and kind of taste the seasoning, if you think it needs anything, add it now.
4) Loosen the skin over the breast and legs of the chicken and really massage the mixture into the chicken under the skin. Place the chicken breast side up on the pan and drizzle the remaining oil over the skin. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper, this makes the skin crispy and super yummy.
5) Roast uncovered for 45 minutes, or until a thermometer reads 170 degrees. Let rest for 10 minutes after it has been removed from the oven, before cutting into it. This lets all the juices redistribute throughout the chicken, making it super moist.
6) While your chicken is cooking put all of the sauce ingredients into a pan on medium and bring up to a boil. This is where you adjust to your tastes, if you think it needs more fig, add more, if it needs more apricot, add more. When it comes to this kind of cooking you are the cook, so make what tastes good to you! Let it cook for 2 minutes, then remove from heat and let all the flavors develop for about 5-10 minutes (or until the chicken comes out). Remove the rosemary stem before serving with your chicken.
7) Cut the chicken into 8 pieces and enjoy!
