Halved Chicken Broiled With Mustard

• Servings: 4.

In her book, Simply French, author and teacher Patricia Wells shares a recipe for splitting a whole chicken in half, cooking it on a charcoal grill, and then finishing it with a coating of hot mustard.  In this adaptation, chicken pieces -- either halves or quarters -- are cooked in a hot oven until nearly done, then coated with mustard and finished under the broiler.

The result is an easy to make weeknight meal that still has complex flavor and mustard's unique and flavorful pungency that matches the chicken perfectly.

If you have the time, you can buy a whole chicken (about 3 pounds) and using poultry shears, split the chicken along the backbone, open it flat, and cook the chicken in a single, flattened piece.

Ingredients

• 2 chicken halves or 4 pieces of breast and leg/thigh, on the bone, or a whole chicken, flattened
• 3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 3 or 4 sprigs of fresh thyme or rosemary
• Salt
• Pepper
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Directions

1. An hour before you will cook the chicken, places the pieces in a baking dish, add the olive oil and lemon juice and sprigs of fresh herbs, turning the chicken over a couple of times to coat. Cover with a sheet of plastic wrap and let sit, at room temperature, to marinate.
2. When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 400° F.
3. Transfer the chicken pieces, discarding the fresh herbs and shaking off any excess marinade, and place on a rack in a shallow baking dish or rimmed sheet pan, skin side up. Season with a few pinches of salt and several grinds of freshly ground black pepper.
4. Bake for about 40 minutes until the chicken pieces are golden brown and cooked through. You can test for doneness either by piecing with a skewer to see if the juices run clear. Or else you can use an instant thermometer, stuck into the thigh meat, and check that the internal temperature has reached 165° F.
5. Remove the chicken from the oven and turn on the broiler.
6. Spread the mustard on the chicken pieces, coating the skin side.
7. Place under the broiler for about 1 minute until the mustard coating becomes brown. Keep an eye on the chicken as it broils because the surface can go from brown to black very quickly.
8. Serve immediately.