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Okay. Let’s start with the word: Spatchcock. It can seem a bit terrifying. We believe it is Irish in origin and rather recent, just 18th Century. A spatchcock is a chicken literally split down the middle, crushed by hand to be flattened and then cooked. Cooked more quickly, more uniformly then those regular roast chickens we enjoy.

So, first this recipe is fast. Second, this recipe has great, great flavor. How often have you marinated or rubbed your bird and then waited to see what that extra attention affords? How often have you been disappointed?

The best thing you can put on chicken is mustard. Plain and simple. I’ve tried many flavor supplements and mustard never disappoints. And, it provides real flavor. After mustard, perhaps the next most powerful flavor agent is maple syrup. So, what more could one do but combine these two.

Now, this is a British recipe from the wonderful Diana Henry so something from the garden or orchard must appear. Here, that special ingredient is figs, small and sweet.

This is a delicious chicken dish. One that does not just “taste like chicken” in the same old boring way.

You can play with different mustards, of course. And, feel free to add more for an even greater spice intensity. There is resurgence, too, in maple syrups. Look for a bourbon-infused one to prove a flavor boost along that dimension.


Roast Maple & Mustard Spatchcock with Figs

Yield: serves 4

Ingredients:

For the chicken:

  • 3 ½ pound chicken
  • 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
  • ¼ cup maple syrup
  • Leaves from 6 sprigs of thyme
  • Salt and pepper

For the figs:

  • 8 figs, stalks snipped off, halved lengthwise
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

To spatchcock the chicken, place it breast-side down on a cutting board. Using good kitchen scissors, cut through the flesh and bone along both sides of the backbone from the tail end to the neck and remove it. Turn the chicken over and press down hard on the breast until you have flattened the chicken. Removed any big globules of fat and neaten any ragged bits of skin.

Mix the mustard, maple syrup and thyme leaves. Put thicken into a roasting pan and brush this mustard-maple mixture all over it, keeping a little back. Season with salt and pepper. Roast the chicken for 45 minutes and, 15 minutes before the end of cooking time, spoon the rest of the maple mixture over the chicken.

When there are 10 minutes before the chicken is ready, put the figs into a small ovenproof dish. Mix the maple syrup and vinegar and spoon this over the cut side of each fig. Season and put to the oven with the chicken. The figs will almost caramelize as they cook.

Cut the chicken into pieces and serve on a warm platter with the glossy figs around it.


Source: Simple by Diana Henry [Mitchell Beazley, 2016]