Sometimes you don’t have as much time as you need to roast a chicken, so what can you do.  Well, if you’re not squeamish – then you can butterfly the chicken and broil it in 1/2 the time it would take to roast it.  It’s really not a hard thing to do.  You simple take the chicken and place it breast side down on a cutting board.  At the back of the chicken there should be a little flap of skin at the end of the backbone.  Make sure that the flap is closest to your body.  Grab the flap firmly with your hand, and take some kitchen shears in your cutting hand.  Now you want to cut up the right side of the backbone and then cut on the left side.  You should now have the backbone separated from the chicken (throw it out – or use it for stock).  Now keeping the orientation of the chicken pull it apart so that you can see the breast bone.  It will be on the far side of your body and you should be able to make a small cut into the skin over the breast bone (this part is hard to describe – but I’ll try).  After making the small cut you should be able to see and feel the top of the breast bone.  Now using your fingers (and a small knife if necessary) – run your fingers down the left side of the bone – exposing it.  Do the same on the right side of the bone.  Now grab it (it kind of looks like a dagger), twist and pull and it should come off. Finally cut the tips off of the two wings.  At this point, with Julia Childs recommendation, it’s time to get rid of a little frustration and break the ribs on the bird to help you flatten it out and cook the bird evenly.  Turn the bird over so that the ribs are closer to you.  Beat those ribs, punch it, slap it, hit it, and break those ribs.

Now you either want to truss the legs together, or you can it Julia’s way and cut a small hole in the fat by the legs and poke the leg bones through.  If you don’t want to do this, then just tie the legs together with some kitchen twine.

Melt a stick of butter, and add 1/2 cup of olive oil.  Lather the bird, season with salt and pepper and place it breast side down on a broiling pan.  Turn the broiler to high and make sure the rack that you will be placing the bird on is about 6 inches from the broiler.  Now becomes the fun part.  You’ll have to make sure through this cooking process that the bird’s skin is not burning.  Cover with foil when necessary or adjust the height of the rack.

After the broiler has preheated, place the bird in the oven.  After 5 minutes baste with the butter / olive oil mixture.  After 5 minutes, repeat basting.  After 5 more minutes you should be able to baste with the juices in the pan and flip the bird over so that the breast is up.  Baste bird with juices, after 5 minutes baste again, after 5 more minutes baste again.  Cook the bird until the meat thermometer placed in the thicker part of the thigh registers 160-165 degrees.  Take it out of the oven, place on cutting board and let it rest for 10 minutes.  If you don’t let it rest, then you are going to be serving a dry chicken.  The juices redistribute themselves in these 10 minutes instead of leaking out of the bird when you cut it.

At this point you can make a gravy with the pan juices.

PROBLEMS I RAN INTO: My bird started to burn a little bit, so I had to cover it in foil for the last 10 minutes of cooking.