One of the simplest ways to make a roast chicken is by splitting the whole chicken along the backbone and flattening it out. This makes it cook more uniformly, and the breast and dark meat finish at the same time.

For our grilled spatchcocked chicken, we picked a spring of rosemary and two garlic cloves, and mashed them together in a little olive oil, using a mortar and pestle.

Then we cut the chicken along the backbone using ordinary kitchen shears or durable scissors, and then cut along the other side of the backbone to remove it completely.

Turning it over, we flattened it out by pressing down on then breastbone, and then brushed the entire top of the chicken with the garlic and rosemary olive oil.

To grill it, we heated the outer two burners of our gas grill, leaving the center area unheated, and placed the chicken skin side up in the center, so it would cook by indirect heat.

That’s really all there is to this. Just cook the chicken until an instant read thermometer shows 165° F in the thigh. The breast meat will probably be about 10 degrees cooler, but still completely cooked. This will take about 30 minutes.

Put the cooked bird on a platter, let it rest a few minutes and carve it to serve. If you have a lot of diners, you may need several birds, but as you see this is really a low labor meal!