Editorial: Kockums JernverkPublished: 2026-11-06

Spatchcock chicken with roasted vegetables

Name: Spatchcock chicken with roasted vegetables
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 1 h 20 min
Cuisine: Swedish
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken, about 1.3 kg; 3 tbsp olive oil; 2 garlic cloves; 2 tsp paprika; 2 sprigs fresh rosemary; 1½ tsp salt; Freshly ground black pepper; 600 g waxy potatoes; 1 courgette; 2 red onions; 1 tbsp olive oil; ½ tsp salt; 2 sprigs fresh rosemary

Serves 4 · 1 hour 20 minutes · Frying pan and pie dish

A whole chicken cut open and flattened roasts in under an hour with crisp skin all over. The vegetables underneath cook in the juices in the same pan.

Spatchcock chicken is a whole chicken with the backbone cut out so it can be flattened and roasted at an even thickness. It is best roasted at 220 °C on potatoes, courgette and red onion until the thigh reaches 82 °C and the skin is golden and crisp.

Golden spatchcocked roast chicken on roasted potatoes, courgette and red onion in a black two-handled carbon steel frying pan and pie dish

Ingredients

Serves 4

Chicken

1 whole chicken, about 1.3 kg
3 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves
2 tsp paprika
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1½ tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Vegetables

600 g waxy potatoes
1 courgette
2 red onions
1 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp salt
2 sprigs fresh rosemary

Method

Heat the oven to 220 °C. Remove any leather covers from the pan handles. Place the chicken breast-side down and cut along both sides of the backbone with sturdy kitchen scissors. Remove the backbone, turn the chicken over and press firmly on the breastbone with the heel of your hand to flatten it. Pat dry.
Crush the garlic and chop the rosemary. Mix with the oil, paprika, salt and pepper and rub all over the chicken.
Cut the potatoes into wedges, the courgette into large chunks and the red onions into wedges. Toss the vegetables with the oil, salt and rosemary directly in the pan and spread them out.
Lay the chicken skin-side up on top of the vegetables. Roast in the middle of the oven for 45–55 minutes until a thermometer reads 82 °C in the thickest part of the thigh.
Rest the chicken for 10 minutes before carving. Lift the pan with oven gloves, as the handles get very hot.
Joint the chicken and serve straight from the pan with the vegetables and juices.

Why it works

With the chicken lying flat, the legs and breast get the same heat and are ready at the same time, so the breast does not dry out. The low-sided carbon steel pan lets the oven heat reach all the skin, while the vegetables underneath soak up the juices.