The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

I’m gonna come right out and say it: this is the best way to
cook a bird, hands down. It’s now the only method I ever
use. I understand that some folks like to see a whole bird
arrive at the table looking like a whole bird, but if I had my
way, the gospel of spatchcocked birds would spread around
the world.
To butterfly (a less fancy term for spatchcock) a bird, all
you’ve got to do is use a pair of sharp poultry shears to cut
out the spine, then flatten it, with its skin side up, by
pressing down firmly on the breastbone. Voilà, that’s it! It’s
a really simple operation that you’ll get the hang of in no
time, and it even works for turkeys.