Sunday, June 24, 2012

Chicken Under a Brick

So the time has come to actually tell people that I have a blog and what do I make? Big dilemma in the Morgan household. "Something beautiful, but not pretentious. It has to be healthy, but not too "granola"...don't want to scare all of these lovely midwesterners with my greens and whole grain lovin'. Will they actually believe me that I can cook? Will anyone read and/or care?"   

Then I realize, I need to spend less time thinking about what other people will think and just make something TASTY. So where to I end up? Friggin' chicken. My best effort to impress people apparently involves the most basic of meats and fancy tools like bricks from my patio and aluminum foil. 

Bring it culinary blog world!


Face the whole chicken with bold bravery. Breasts up and find a backbone (heard that one before, right?). Sharp knife from front to back and remove the backbone. From there, put some muscle into it and split the chicken. Raise your hands and knife in primal victory!


Time to make some flavor paste. Rosemary from my back stair garden, Herbes de Provence, grainy mustard and garlic. Mix together with lemon juice and olive oil. Don't get too crazy though, should be a paste, not a liquid-y marinade.


Make peace with the chicken you've severed by giving it a nice rub. You're friendly like that.


Let the paste and chicken hang out in the fridge for a few hours. Add a bit more olive oil and prepare for chicken to meet brick.


Here's where you get really crafty... find two bricks and wrap in foil. Or in my case, steal two bricks from the crumbling fire pit thing in your shared back patio.

Preheat your grill until screamin' hot. Seriously, you want a good sear on these babies. Put the chickens breast side down and then place a heavy skillet on top and with your brick in the pan. Snazzy right?

It may look a bit ghetto, but this serves a real and important purpose. Your pan and brick when get hot on the grill, thus cooking your chicken from both sides. This cuts your cooking time and keeps the chicken juicy. And it makes your neighbors think you're weird.


After 40ish minutes on indirect high heat, you'll have this glorious bird. Crispy edges, moist insides.


Let the chicks rest and pull off the bone. Enjoy solo or on top of salad. We had with Blue Cheese Arugula Potato Salad.


So this is what I've got...friggin' chicken. I could say something really thoughtful like, this is my personality on the plate or simplicity is the essence of all things good. But in all honesty, this tastes really great. That's all I've got... friggin' great chicken.

Chicken Under a Brick
Whole chicken (about 4lbs), split
2 tablespoons rosemary, chopped
1 tablespoon Herbes de Provence
2 tablespoons good mustard
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Combine paste ingredients and rub down both sides of chicken. Allow to marinate for several hours (or overnight). Remove chicken from fridge about 20 minutes before beginning grilling. Place chicken breast-side down on VERY hot grill. Place heavy skillet on top of chicken and put foil-wrapped brick in pan.

Cook chicken over indirect high heat for about 40 minutes, or until juice run clear. Do not turn chicken during cooking. Allow chicken to rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

1 comment:

  1. This looks so good! Thank you for sharing your recipes, it'll make my meal planning easier...just a few more weeks before our garden veggies are available! There's lots of herbs now for a small free-meal fee :)

    ReplyDelete

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