then last week i came across a misplaced pair of fiskars scissors. they reminded me of a old saveur mag article on south east asian street food. a cool pic of the dude grilling chicken halves on a grate over a open fire. it's a viable way of prepping/cooking chicken in the oven too, but you really need some heavy duty scissors or shears to cut the bird in half. it's a circumnavigation snip snip around the body. split the breasts and when you get to the chicken's back it's like heading north from miami, cutting around either side of florida. you then have the option of discarding the back (as i've done emotionally with florida).
the roasted halves cook faster of course. and they render more fat yet less juices. can only speculate why but it really doesn't matter. end result is juicy meat. another helper is slightly raising up the halves off the roasting pan with a bed of fragrant herbs and onions. in this case scallions and sage.