Spatchcock

Spatchcock a culinary term, met in cookery books of the 18th and 19th centuries, and revived towards the end of the 20th century, which is said to be of Irish origin. The theory is that the word is an abbreviation of ‘dispatch cock’, a phrase used to indicate a summary way of grilling a bird after splitting it open down the back and spreading the two halves out flat. See also, however, spitchcock.