Brown Butter Butterflied Chicken Recipes

BROILED, BUTTERFLIED CHICKEN

Steps:

• Position the oven rack 8 inches from the flame/coil and turn broiler to high. Crack peppercorns with a mortar and pestle until coarsely ground. Add garlic and salt and work well. Add lemon zest and work just until you can smell lemon. Add just enough oil to form a paste.
• Check out your refrigerator for onions, carrots and celery that are a little past their prime. Cut vegetables into pieces and place in a deep roasting pan.
• Place chicken on a plastic cutting board breast-side down. Using kitchen shears, cut ribs down one side of back bone and then the other and remove. Open chicken like a book and remove the keel bone separating the breast halves by slicing through the thin membrane covering it, then by placing two fingers underneath the bone and levering it out. Turn chicken breast-side up and spread out like a butterfly by pressing down on the breast and pulling the legs towards you. Loosen the skin at the neck and the edges of the thighs. Evenly distribute the garlic mixture under the skin, saving 2 teaspoons for the jus. Drizzle the skin with oil and rub in, being sure to cover the bird evenly. Drizzle oil on bone side of chicken as well.
• Arrange bird in roasting pan, breast up, atop vegetables.
• Place pan in oven being sure to leave the oven door ajar. Check bird in 10 minutes. If the skin is a dark mahogany, hold the drumstick ends with paper towels and flip bone-side up. Cook 12 to 15 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. Juices must run clear. Remove and place chicken into a deep bowl and cover loosely with foil.
• Tilt pan so that any fat will pool at corner. Siphon this off with a bulb baster. (This fat is great in vinaigrettes). Set pan over 2 burners set on high. Deglaze pan with a few shots of red wine and scrape brown bits from bottom using a carrot chunk held with tongs. Add chicken stock, thyme, the remaining garlic paste and reduce briefly to make a jus. Strain out vegetables and discard. Slice chicken onto plates or serve in quarters. Sauce lightly with jus and serve.

BUTTERFLIED ROAST CHICKEN WITH LEMON AND ROSEMARY

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line a rimmed baking pan with aluminum foil. Place a rack on top of foil.
• Rub olive oil on both sides of chicken and generously season with salt and black pepper. Arrange lemon slices and rosemary on the rack and place chicken, skin-side up, onto the rack.
• Roast in the preheated oven until no longer pink at the bone and the juices run clear, 45 to 55 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh, near the bone should read 165 degrees F (74 degrees C).
• Transfer chicken to a serving platter and tent a piece of aluminum foil over it. Discard lemon and rosemary and remove rack.
• Pour wine into the baking pan and gently loosen the bits of food in the pan with a wooden spoon, being careful not to tear the foil. Strain pan juices into a saucepan and bring to a boil; cook until sauce is slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Spoon sauce over chicken.

SWEET GLAZED BUTTERFLIED CHICKEN

Steps:

• Prepare the chicken. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Rest on the counter for 2 hours to come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Roast the chicken. Pour the olive oil into a large ovenproof pan over high heat. As the oil begins to smoke, add the chicken, skin side down. Press gently, especially the legs, and allow to sear until a peek beneath reveals golden brown skin, about 10 minutes. Using tongs, flip over so the skin is on top and place the pan in the oven. Roast until the internal temperature is around 140 degrees F, 40 to 45 minutes.
• Make the glaze. In a small pot over medium heat, add some olive oil to coat the pan and melt the butter. Add the onion, garlic, a pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper. Cook until the onion and garlic are tender but not browned. Add the brown sugar, mustard, hot sauce, vinegar and allspice. Reduce, about 5 minutes, then remove from the heat.
• Glaze the chicken. Remove the chicken from the oven and brush on the glaze. Return the chicken to the oven and continue to cook until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F, about 20 minutes more.
• Serve. Cover the chicken loosely with foil and let rest for 15 minutes to allow the juices to redistribute. Then cut into sections and serve.

SWEET GLAZED BUTTERFLIED CHICKEN

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Allow to rest on the counter for up to 2 hours to come to room temperature.
• Heat a large oven-safe pan (such as a cast-iron skillet) over medium-high heat and add the olive oil. Right as the oil begins to smoke, add the chicken, skin side down. Press gently while cooking and allow to sear until a peek beneath reveals golden brown skin, about 10 minutes. Using tongs, flip the bird over so that the skin is on top and place the pan in the oven. Be gentle with the tongs, they could rip the skin; try gripping the legs to flip. Place the pan in the oven and roast about 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, in a saucepot on medium heat, add the butter and melt. Add the onions, garlic and allspice, and sprinkle with a pinch of salt and a grind of pepper. Sweat the onions for a few minutes, but do not brown. Add the brown sugar, mustard, hot sauce and vinegar. Cook a bit more to bring the flavors together, and then remove from the heat.
• When the chicken is around the 140 degree F mark, about 30 minutes in, remove from the oven and brush on the glaze. Return to the oven and continue to cook until an instant-read thermometer reads 165 degrees F, about 15 minutes more. Let the chicken rest 10 minutes before serving. Cut off the legs, and then slice the breast off and cut into portions.

BROILED BUTTERFLIED CHICKEN

Steps:

• Preheat the broiler to high. Brush the chicken all over with butter and oil and arrange it skin side down in a shallow pan. Set it under the broiler so the chicken surface is about 6 inches from the heat source. Let broil for about 5 minutes, then baste rapidly with the butter and oil, and continue for another 5 minutes. The surface should be browning nicely; if not, adjust the heat or the distance of chicken from broiler. Baste again, this time with the juices accumulated in the pan, and broil another 5 minutes. Then season with salt and pepper, turn the chicken skin side up, and season the surface. Continue broiling and basting with the pan juices every 5 minutes for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the chicken is done (see page 44).
• Remove the chicken to a carving board and let it rest for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, make the deglazing sauce by first spooning cooking fat off the juices in the pan. Then stir the shallot into the pan and simmer for a minute or so on top of the stove, until the juices are syrupy. Swirl in the enrichment butter, pour over the chicken, and serve.
• BROIL/ROASTED BUTTERFLIED ROASTING CHICKEN-AND TURKEY. Broil/roasting a big 6-to-7-pound butterflied roaster or capon or a 12-pound turkey takes, again, half the time you'd need if you roasted it whole. Use exactly the same system as for the preceding broiled chicken except that, when you have browned the underside, and given the skin side the beginning of a brown, you then switch from broiling to roasting. Just finish the cooking in the oven-I like to roast mine at 350°F. A 6-to-7-pound bird takes 1 to 1 1/4 hours; a 12-pound turkey, about 2 hours. See the broil/roast times box for more details.
• DEVILED GAME HENS OR POUSSINS. For 2 birds, serving 4 people. Butterfly the birds and broil as in the master recipe, but give them only 10 minutes per side. Meanwhile, whisk together, to make a mayonnaise-like sauce, 1/3 cup Dijon mustard, a large minced shallot, pinches of dried tarragon or rosemary, drops of Tabasco sauce, and 3 tablespoons of the pan juices. Paint this over the skin sides of the birds, then pat on a layer of fresh white bread crumbs. Baste with the remaining juices. Finish cooking under the broiler.
• With heavy shears or a cleaver, cut down close to the backbone on each side, and remove the bone. Spread the chicken open, skin side up, and pound on the breast with your fist to flatten the chicken. Cut off and discard the little nubbins at the wing elbows, and fold the wings akimbo. To hold the legs in place, make 1/2-inch slits in the skin on each side of the lower breast and tuck the drumstick ends through the slits.
• Always allow an additional 20 to 30 minutes, just to be safe.
• Butterflied Roasting Chickens
• 4 to 5 pounds / 45 minutes to 1 hour
• 5 to 6 pounds / 1 to 1 1/4 hours
• Butterflied Turkeys
• 8 to 12 pounds / 1 1/2 to 2 hours
• 12 to 16 pounds / 2 to 2 1/2 hours
• 16 to 20 pounds / 2 1/2 to 3 hours
• Whenever bread crumbs are called for, always make your own out of fresh homemade-type bread. Cut off the crusts, slice the bread into 1-inch chunks, and pulse not more than 2 cups at a time in a food processor, or 1 cup at a time in an electric blender. It's useful to make a lot while you are at it and freeze what you don't need.