Olive Tapenade Spatchcocked Chicken for French Fridays with Dorie

A bowl of corn veloute notwithstanding, I have not exactly been the most active Dorista lately. But I just couldn't miss this week's French Fridays with Dorie. You didn't think I would pass up an opportunity to spatchcock something, now did you?

Stop it! There is nothing untoward about spatchcocking. It is simply the removal of a chicken - or other bird's - backbone, and a subsequent flattening of the bird before roasting or grilling in order to facilitate even cooking. As if by magic, both the thighs and the breast are simultaneously  finished at an optimal state of juiciness.

The term may be all innocence, but I'll grant you that the results are bit ... explicit:

To be fair, Dorie's original recipe  - which called for Cornish game hens - may have yielded more delicate results. But I wanted to spatchcock a whole, big-girl sized chicken. 

Also, Dorie's recipe only uses one teaspoon of olive tapenade on each bird. As you can see, I used rather more.

And so, inspired by this post on Jenna's Everything Blog, I  made my own tapenade - oil cured olives, green olives, capers, thyme, olive oil, and Taste #5 Umami paste -  and slathered great big messy handfuls of the stuff under and on top of the skin.  I laid this over some thyme and lemon slices, and popped it into a 400 degree F oven for 50 minutes.

The result? Crispy skin and meltingly  soft meat intensely flavored, but not overpowered, with olive.  And the lesson? Sometimes more really is more.

I served the bird perched on top of a nest of butter-sauteed Brussels sprouts:

If you want to become a Dorista and cook along for French Fridays with Dorie, just pick up a copy of Around My French Table and get to it. In the meantime, you can see other interpretations of this week's dish here.

Happy French Friday!