Chicken al Mattone, or Chicken Under A Brick

What’s better than cooking with building materials? When the latest issue of Bon Appetit arrived, the chicken on the front cover looked really good. Roast chicken, simple as it is, is one of my favorite foods, and this looked like an interesting twist. Flip to the article, and the recipe lists a brick under “Special Equipment”. Awesome. Fortunately, there’s a stack of bricks around the side of our house for some reason, so we were in business.

You butterfly the chicken by removing the backbone so it will lie flat, then you set the brick on top of it to press the skin down on to the pan, which makes it nice and crispy. Starting on the stove then finishing in the oven adds nice, juicy meat to the crispy skin, which is what I like in a roast chicken. The lemon and rosemary flavors and scents were pretty strong, making a nice addition. The end result was great, and to be honest, turned out a lot better than many of the plain roast chickens I’ve cooked! This Chicken Under a Brick recipe feeds 4 hungry people at $1.19 per serving.

Chicken al Mattone
1 4-pound chicken, backbone cut away and discarded, rinsed and patted dry
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, divided
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
2 garlic cloves, pressed
coarse kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
chopped fresh Italian parsley

Butterfly your whole chicken. This video best demonstrates how to easily butterfly your chicken. Or you could ask your butcher to butterfly the chicken for you.

Mix 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of chopped rosemary, and the minced garlic in a small bowl. Rub the marinade all over both sides of the chicken. Put the chicken in a large Ziploc bag and let it chill overnight in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, and find a brick from your garage or garden and wrap it in aluminum foil.

Sprinkle the chicken with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a heavy large ovenproof skillet over a medium-high heat. Place the chicken skin side down in the skillet and cook it until the skin turns golden brown, around 7 minutes.

Do not turn over the chicken, but place the foil-wrapped brick crosswise on top of the chicken. Roast the chicken in the oven for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, take the skillet out of the oven and remove the brick. Turn the chicken over in the pan and replace the brick on top again. Place the skillet back in the oven and continue roasting the chicken until the juices run clear when the thickest part of the thigh is pierced, around 15 minutes longer.

Take the chicken out of the oven and remove the brick. Transfer the chicken to a platter and drizzle with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Sprinkle the chicken with crushed red pepper and fresh Italian parsley.