Sometimes chicken gets a bum rap. Everyone eats it, everyone likes it, but some people don’t even call it “chicken” anymore, they’ve taken to calling it “protein.” Well, chicken is protein, that much is true, but it seems sort of clinical and detached to call an animal “protein” instead of what it is, a chicken. Maybe it’s because we are so used to buying packages of chicken parts in the store, with no real thought given to the whole animal, and we’ve forgotten that in addition to the breasts we’ve come to consider lean protein, there’s other delicious and flavorful parts of the bird that are going by the wayside.

I’ve made the switch recently to buying whole chickens at the store instead of just their parts. I taught myself how to cut up a chicken for cooking, (thanks YouTube!) although mostly I roast my birds whole. I cover them with chopped garlic and herbs, stuff a single lemon inside the body, and salt and pepper the whole shebang before sticking it in the oven. The house smells so great when it’s cooking! Our small family gets two nice meals out of one chicken, more if we use flatbread, then I make stock from the carcass so the whole animal is used. It makes phenomenal soup later on! Plus I really and truly believe that whole farm chickens are way more flavorful (and less expensive!) than the bulk chicken breasts lining the shelves.

Of course, we flatbread lovers know how to make short work of a rotisserie chicken, so I’m not alone in my love of the whole bird. You can use any type of chicken for this flatbread recipe, but boneless skinless breasts have the lowest SmartPoints value. So now that you know how to cut up a whole chicken, the sky is the limit! This flatbread recipe for baked chicken shawarma uses lots of herbs and spices for a flavorful and beautiful wrap that’s easy to throw together with a little time for roasting. Get to cooking, flatbreaders!

-Amy at Flatout