Start with your chicken breast side down on a working surface or roasting pan.

Pat chicken dry. Starting at the thigh end cut a long the backbone of the chicken with kitchen shears. Turn chicken around and continue the other side of the backbone, until you can remove it. Set it aside or use it for stock.

Next turn chicken over and flatten it out. You will take your hands and press hard on the breast bone to flatten out the chicken. You may hear a small crack.

We tucked the wings under and this is totally optional. Many people have rules about how the chicken is supposed to "look" etc, but it's really a rather simple process.

Removing the backbone, and flattening out the breast bone is really the most important part of this.