This simple chicken recipe takes very little time to prepare. Its crispy skin and juicy meat is a favorite in our house. Serve it with a simple potato side and vegetable, and you have a wonderful and satisfying dinner.

Ingredients:

• Whole chicken (5-6 lbs) pastured raised if possible
• Lard or butter (1 TBSP)
• Season salt (2 TBSP)

You will need scissors (poultry shears are going to work the best as you will be cutting through the backbone), a baking pan with a rack (I like to use a cookie rack and jelly roll pan), and some kind of towel to pat the chicken dry (I like to use a flour sack towel for this).

You will be cutting the backbone out of the chicken. The neck will come out with this process. (I save these and roast them as well.)

Once the backbone is removed, flip the chicken over so it is breast side up.

You will need to push down on the breastbone and break it to cause the chicken to flatten. This will take a little bit of force (use both hands).

Once it is broken, it should look like this.

Drizzle the lard over all of the chicken skin. Then sprinkle with seasoned salt. I also tucked the wings back at this point.

Bake at 375 degrees for 75-90 minutes. I use an instant read thermometer and make sure it’s at 165 degrees before pulling out and letting it rest for 10 minutes.

Enjoy!!