Attempting to Break Down A Chicken

Roast Chicken was on the menu but the store didn't have my usual organic chicken broken down into perfect pieces for roasting. They did however have a whole chicken. I figured, how hard could it be to break down a chicken? I'd seen Ina do it on the Barefoot Contessa. Surely, I could do it too. Um, no. I was able to remove the back bone but after leaning on it with all my weight to crush and therefore flatten the chicken I got sqeamish and gave up. Into the pan it went. Something about the cracking bones freaked me out and it just wasn't worth it. It was still delicious. Roasted at 400 deg with red potatoes, drizzled with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with salt and pepper. The asparagus are added to the pan about 10 minutes before it's done.

Here she is, my beautifully roasted but still almost whole chicken. Have you ever broken down a chicken? How did it go?