Butcher spatchcoked my chicken backwards... what to do? HELP

sholedc · February 14

I asked the butcher to "butterfly" my chicken this afternoon for me so I wouldn't have to fool with it. Mistake. Apparently he did it backwards. Maybe this is common and I'm an idiot, but I've never seen this before. He removed the breastbone instead of the backbone. The way the chicken is sitting, if I lay it flat the breasts will be sort of underneath and to the sides of the chicken while the legs and thighs are sort of on top. How will this affect cooking? Seems like the breast could easily overcook in the position its in and the legs and thighs undercook. I was planning on cooking 375 with a raised grid. Should I go indirect now? SMH... should've just done it myself.

sholedc · February 14

here's a pic

Mayberry · February 14

Go ahead and cut the back out also, and just cook half chickens. Works just as well as spatchcock, IMO.

Que_n_Brew · February 14

And...go ahead and find another butcher. :))

sholedc · February 14

Mother friggin Whole Foods.

Charlie tuna · February 15

Spatchcock it and split it after cooking - he did you a favor !

henapple · February 15

I hate it when the breast and the thighs are in the wrong place....

Mayberry · February 15

Lol...that's what you get for letting a hippie cut your meat for you!

SeeingSpots · February 15

Yeah, only let professionals handle your meat.

double · February 15

Cook it! Still tastes like chicken.

Botch · February 15

Okay Sholedc, I'm sure its not funny to you (right now) but I cannot stop laughing! :))

I'd recommend cooking it skin-side down, indirect, so the breasts are facing up, even if naked. And as Que N Brew said, find another butcher!

Canugghead · February 15

Wondering if it can be twisted into 'leaping frog' ... tie the split breast halves together with butcher twine?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eixA28_Phak

nolaegghead · February 15

Cook it just like it is. Then report back (of course after measuring the thigh and breast temps) so we can learn from this.

Solson005 · February 15

I have done that myself when I first started spatchcocking. :-B

I cooked it the same way raised direct, no flip and had the same great results as always..

td66snrf · February 15

Buy a pair of poultry shears.

CeramicChef · February 15

Go talk to the head butcher and store manager at Whole Foods, tell them what happened, get a refund, and another butcher! There are a lot of places to get organic, free range chicken, beef, pork.

sholedc · February 15

haha... some of these responses are cracking me up. Anyways I just ended up taking the backbone out myself and cooking it in halves. Crisis averted. Turned out just fine. Easy fix, but I didn't have any shears so thats why I was sort of panickicking. But regular scissors worked fine. For the record, I searched the internet about a "reverse spatchcock" chicken and what little I found said that it turns out good cooking it like normal. Thanks for the responses!

Charlie tuna · February 15

My first few spatchcocks i was following the directions on how to prep the bird and removing the breast bone. Well, i got away from that. The good thing about removing it is it makes it very easy to divide the chicken up before serving. For a while i was mangling the bird to get the breasts apart.

thetrim · February 15

sholedc said:

Mother friggin Whole Foods.

Bet they'd know how to "roll a doobie!"

BYS1981 · February 16

definitely get a new butche wholefoods does have a nice beer selection tho.

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Butcher spatchcoked my chicken backwards... what to do? HELP

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