Gordon Ramsay spatchcocks a small chicken and cooks the whole bird in 10 minutes flat. It goes skin-down on a smoking griddle under a weight, wearing a smoked paprika and thyme rub. A green avocado dressing waits on the side.
The recipe sits in Ramsay in 10 as Spiced Spatchcock Chicken with Green Goddess Dressing, and he cooks it on his YouTube channel too. His own headnote calls it ambitious, and it only works with a small bird around 1kg, or two poussin.
The speed comes from pressure and steam. The flattened bird cooks under a weighted tray for full skin contact, 5 minutes a side, and a splash of water under the cover steams it through from inside the pan.
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Gordon Ramsay Spatchcock Chicken
Course: DinnerCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Medium4
servings10
minutes10
minutes645
kcal20 min
The Spiced Spatchcock Chicken with Green Goddess Dressing from Ramsay in 10, cooked al mattone, under a weight, on a screaming hot griddle. The salad gets croutons toasted in the spiced chicken fat.
Ingredients
Vegetable oil, for griddling
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 small spatchcocked chicken (about 1kg/2 lb 4 oz) or two poussin
- For the green goddess dressing:
½ avocado
1 tsp Dijon mustard
3 tbsp buttermilk
1 tsp cider vinegar
Sea salt
3 tbsp olive oil or avocado oil
- To serve:
Mixed salad leaves
Small handful of tarragon leaves
½ avocado
2 thick slices of sourdough bread
75g (3 oz) Gorgonzola or soft blue cheese
Directions
- Heat the griddle: Place a griddle pan over a high heat until smoking hot, then brush it with oil.
- Spice the bird: Mix the smoked paprika, garlic salt, thyme and black pepper, then sprinkle all over the chicken.
- Press and cook: Put the chicken skin-side down on the hot griddle. Place a heavy baking tray on top and weigh it down with a few heavy cans. Cook for 5 minutes, turn the bird over, and cook for a further 5 minutes.
- Blitz the dressing: While the chicken cooks, put all the dressing ingredients into a small blender with 3 tablespoons of water. Blitz until smooth.
- Start the salad: Put the salad leaves into a bowl with the tarragon. Slice the avocado and add it too.
- Rest and toast: Move the chicken to a board to rest. Put the sourdough slices on the griddle and toast for 1 to 2 minutes in the spiced chicken fat.
- Finish the salad: Tear the bread into croutons and crumble the cheese. Add both to the salad, drizzle with dressing and toss. Pour any extra dressing into a bowl for the chicken.
- Serve: Cut the chicken into quarters and serve on the board, salad on the side, everyone helps themselves.
Notes
- Ramsay’s chef’s tip from the book: weigh the bird down with an upturned heavy frying pan and carefully add half a cup of water, the steam speeds the cooking. Have your extractor on.
FAQs
How can a whole chicken cook in 10 minutes?
Three things working together, and none of them optional. The bird is spatchcocked flat and small, the griddle is smoking before it lands, and the weight presses every bit of skin against the metal while trapped steam cooks it from above. Miss one and the middle stays raw.
Ramsay’s doneness check applies here like anywhere: pierce the thickest part of the thigh and the juices must run clear. If they’re pink, more time, the clock is not the boss. His chicken cooking times guide lists an oven spatchcock at 45 minutes, and the gap between those numbers is exactly this method.
What does Ramsay do differently in the video?
The rub changes first: garlic powder instead of garlic salt, plus a touch of chilli. His weight is an upturned pan with water poured in for steam, the book’s chef’s tip performed live. He squeezes lemon over the cooked bird too, then grills the squeezed halves beside it.
The croutons change as well. On camera they fry in olive oil with salt and chilli in a separate pan, while the book toasts whole sourdough slices in the chicken fat left on the griddle. The book’s way tastes of the spice rub, the video’s way is faster.
What is in green goddess dressing?
Ramsay’s version is avocado, Dijon mustard, buttermilk, cider vinegar, salt and olive oil, blitzed with 3 tablespoons of water. The avocado replaces the mayonnaise and soured cream of a classic green goddess, so it comes out lighter and greener.
For a sharper everyday alternative, his classic vinaigrette covers the same salad with mustard and two oils, no blender needed.
Why toast the bread in the chicken fat?
Because the fat carries the whole spice rub. The sourdough goes onto the empty griddle while the bird rests, drinks up the paprika and thyme, and gets torn into croutons that season the salad from inside. Stale bread works best, drier bread crisps harder.
His caesar salad builds croutons the same way with Parmesan, next to griddled chicken, if this half of the dish is your favourite half.
Does the spice rub need marinating time?
Sprinkled on just before cooking works, that’s the book. In the video Ramsay prefers the bird rubbed the day before, because overnight the paprika stains deep into the skin and the garlic and thyme get past the surface.
For a whole chicken built entirely around a long marinade, his jerk chicken goes to the other extreme, Scotch bonnets and allspice soaking for hours before the oven.
