If you haven’t bought a butterflied bird, now would be the time to split and flatten that bird out. Take a pair of kitchen shears and cut along each side of the spine to remove it. Then score the membrane along the inner part of the breastbone, gently press the carcass open, like a book, and pull out the spear of cartilage you’ll see in there. You don’t need it and it’ll just get in the way later on.

Once your bird is flat, coat each side generously with salt, lay it skin side down in a cast iron pan and then set on a just lit grill. You want everything to come up to temperature as the grill heats, it’ll render the fat from the chicken as well as getting that skin super crisp. You want to aim for about 375°F (190°C) on your grill. This bird took about 90 minutes total to cook, but check to see if you can flip it at about 45 minutes. You’ll know it’s ready to flip when it releases from the pan. I tried a few times and the skin was still sticking. Just wait another 5-10 mins and then check again, I’ll release eventually.