I'm going to try this.  From http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/dining/a-new-breed-of-roast-chicken-cast-iron-seared.html?_r=4&

A Good Appetite

A New Breed of Roast Chicken, Cast-Iron Seared

Splayed Roast Chicken With Ramps: Melissa Clark demonstrates a different way to roast a chicken.

By MELISSA CLARK

Published: May 4, 2012

Probably not, but I collect them anyway, trying out each permutation with the zeal of the obsessed. Would this one give me crispier skin, a juicer breast or more soft and supple dark meat?

Usually the answer is no.

But every once in a while, I find a keeper, a fresh approach to that age-old technique that does yield a better bird. This recipe is one of them.

It’s really not a whole new recipe unto itself, just a few tweaks on a classic: chicken roasted in a hot cast-iron skillet.

The premise of the original technique is that by heating a cast-iron skillet in a 500-degree oven, then placing the bird in the pan so its thighs make contact with the surface, the dark meat will finish cooking at the same time as the white. This is because the thighs, which are instantly seared by the cast iron, get a jump-start on the breast, which is not seared and cooks more slowly, staying moist.

I’ve tried it and it works very well. And it’s one of the easiest ways to roast a chicken if you own a cast-iron skillet large enough to hold the bird (an inexpensive 12-inch skillet works well and is not a bad thing to have on hand, anyway).

My change is to splay the chicken’s legs, spread-eagling them. This exposes more of the dark meat to the searing pan, cooking the bird more quickly and, I think, that much more evenly. (Don’t confuse splaying with spatchcocking, which means cutting out the bird’s backbone; all you do here is snip the skin and pull the legs away from the body.)

I also keep the oven at 500 degrees for the entire cooking time, which ensures crunchy, shiny, mahogany skin. If you have time to salt the chicken a few hours ahead and store it uncovered in the fridge, which allows the skin to dry out a bit, it gets even crispier.

I’ve made splayed roasted chicken a half-dozen times, and with a 4 ½-pound bird it takes about 45 minutes. A three-pound bird will cook even more quickly, in about 30 to 35 minutes.

A plump, moist, juicy chicken with a crisp skin is a poem of a meal on its own, needing no other embellishment.

But that never stops me. Here, I added ramps, sweet garlic and salty capers to the bottom of the pan. They quickly caramelize into a bright oniony sauce that’s lovely with the succulent meat. It’s a rare bird indeed.

RRP said:

That wasn’t my picture, but I thought I started that MAJOR modification before they added those scilicone tabs. I made mine using a slotted piece of wooden dowel, but I also drilled a hole thru the tab and metal tab and the wood…