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Spatchcock, or the fancy term for butterflying a whole chicken, is a trick to have delicious, rotisserie style chicken that’s quick and delicious. German Spiced Spatchcocked Chicken has old world Eastern European flavors your family will love.

 

Some of you are wondering what in the world is spatchcocked chicken. Well, I’m here to tell you it’s a fancy way for saying butterfly. To spatchcock a chicken, you simply take your kitchen shears and cut down one side of the back bone to allow the chicken to open and lay flat.  It makes the cooking time quick!  This chicken goes well with roasted yellow squash or Instant Pot wild rice pilaf.

 

How do you spatchcock a chicken?

 

For me, I cut down both sides and removed the back bone. It’s not like I will eat any of the back meat. I’m just not that type of girl. My dad, on the other hand, LOVES the back meat. However, you could save it and add it to the pot next time you make chicken broth.  I also split the wishbone allowing the breasts to lay a little flatter.

 

 

As you can see, it lays nice and flat on the cutting board. Snipping that wishbone really does help the breasts lay flat. Of course, you must get a little creative with tucking the wings under. If you want, you could separate the wings which would allow them to lay even flatter.

 

You’re asking yourself, “Why would you want to go through all this trouble for a chicken?” Since there’s more surface area the chicken will take less time to cook. With just a few minutes of prep time, you can cut the oven time considerably. What would have taken me about 1 1/2 hours is now under 45 minutes for my 4 to 4 1/2 pound chicken.

 

 

Now, at this point you could easily coat this chicken with any flavor rub you want. You could even cover it with salt and pepper and call it a day. But, that’s not my style. My style is to create a delicious and flavorful rub for everything. For this chicken, I thought I’d channel my German roots and see what I could come up with.

 

Apparently, chicken spice is quite common and traditional. At least according to Pinterest it is. Then I stumbled on a recipe for brathendl and knew I was onto something delicious. I loved all the flavors in this rub. It captured that Eastern European flavor I was looking for. The use of paprika in Europe is wide spread and delicious. It’s one of my favorite spices.

 

 

How do you make German Spiced Spatchcocked Chicken?

 

You can see how the paprika has colored the rub and chicken. There’s no denying that this German spiced spatchcocked chicken is going to taste amazing. Which is does. All the flavors of the paprika, rosemary, marjoram (so underappreciated), and thyme penetrate that tender and juicy chicken meat.

 

Once the chicken reaches about 145 for the breast and 165 for the thigh you want it to rest. You know why? Because you want all those juices to calm down and stay in the meat. If you cut the German Spiced Spatchcocked Chicken too early, the juices will just flow out and you’ll have a dry chicken. No one wants that.

 

 

So, let it rest. And once it’s rested, simply cut the German Spiced Spatchcocked Chicken into quarters. Which is so easy to do once you’ve spatchcocked it. There’s no backbone to deal with. If you’ve snipped the wish bone then it’s simple to cut the breasts in two and separate the leg quarters from the rest of the chicken. That’s another bonus of spatchcocking a chicken; it’s easy to cut and serve.

 

I served my chicken with a delicious dill and red potato salad. So delicious. Hmm… I haven’t shared that recipe. I probably should at some point. You could easily serve it up with a German potato salad or my German Cauliflower Salad some Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Sweet Potatoes. Or your favorite haluski recipe.

 

 

No matter what you serve with this German spiced spatchcocked chicken, your family will love it and ask for it time and time again. And, since it cooks faster than a traditionally roasted chicken, you can easily appease the hungry masses. What’s your favorite seasoning for a roasted chicken?