Friday, April 9, 2010

Bricken Chicken

Now that the snow has melted & the temperatures are staying above 40 F, the aroma of grilling can be caught in the air every evening through all the neighborhoods of Minneapolis. We are unable to resist its temptation & are happy to be headed back to our backyard grill. So, we pulled the last of the chicken from our freezer (no, more chicken from the local farm until June!) & Matt decided he wanted to try grilling it under bricks.
Brick Chicken
Spatchcocking is our favorite way to prepare a chicken for roasting & this just takes that one step further by pressing the bird even flatter with bricks. The results are really pretty fabulous. You end up with a juicy bird that has been very evenly cooked. & the skin is to die for. We couldn't stop ourselves from nibbling on the wings & drumettes even before dinner hit the plate. We'll definitely be making chicken this way again throughout grilling season.

Here's how Matt made his Bricken Chicken (he came up with the name).
Chicken ready for the grill
Follow our instructions for spatchcocking a chicken. Season your chicken anyway you like. We used some minced garlic & a blend of Italian herbs. Then rub the whole thing with some olive oil.
Bricks for the grill
Wrap two bricks with foil. Use bricks that are solid so they are heavy. Heat the grill to medium/medium-low.
Chicken on skin side down
Oil the grill grates & place the chicken on skin side down.
Bricks on top of the chicken
Place the bricks on top of the chicken to press it as flat as possible.
Brick Chicken
When the skin side is golden brown & starting to get crispy remove the bricks & flip the chicken over. For us that took 23 minutes. We chose not to put the bricks back on the chicken because we didn't want to ruin that beautiful skin, I know some people do put the bricks back on at this point. Then just cook until the chicken is cooked through & the juices run clear. We had a pretty small chicken, about 3 lbs, so we only needed 15 minutes more.
Brick Chicken
Remove the chicken from the grill & let rest about 5 minutes before carving. It's hard to resist that little beauty!

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23 comments:

  1. I am showing this to my husband! I've seen spatchcocked chicken before and have always wanted to try it (as if I don't say THAT a lot!) Rather than seasoning the chicken, is there any reason why I couldn't marinate the whole bird - let's say in your chai brine?

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  2. This looks so good. And with those little potatoes too? Yum!

    If only I had a grill. Hmm... Maybe I'll have to borrow the neighbor's grill.

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  3. Tangled Noodle - You could totally brine or marinade the chicken & get great flavor this way.

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  4. Love the name! I do whole chickens that way too, maybe because I just love to say 'Spatchcock'

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  5. I was intrigued by the name of this - looks elish. Weather here has taken a turn for the better too. Was about 68f here today

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  6. i already love the word 'spatchcock' and now i love the word 'bricken' just as much. great method and lovely results!

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  7. Bricken is an amazing name for an amazing looking chick. What a great idea!

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  8. "Bricken Chicken" very clever, and looks very tasty

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  9. I've done a whole chicken with a brick, but never just part. Might be easier that way for sure. Looks quite tasty. I am glad that grill times are back!

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  10. I love a spatchcock, but flattening it out with bricks is genius! I must have a go.

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  11. Whoa! That is a long time to wait for chicken. Fortunately our farm here will have some the end of this month.

    I'm so glad you outlined this process. I saw it on the Food Network a while back, but had no idea about the term. We got our grill last weekend and are grilling some chicken tomorrow!

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  12. "Bricken Chicken"...LOLLOLLOOLOL! Love it and I love saying "Bricken Chicken".

    Such a fun method and one I can't wait to try!

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  13. Like your rhymin' fixins...this is also called "spatchcocking" a chicken. A great way to kick-up BBQ season!

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  14. Casey - This is a whole chicken its just been spatchcocked

    Peter - Yup, we actually link back to a post we have showing how to spatchcock

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  15. Bad, bad idea.

    You NEVER press down on meat while it is cooking on an open grill - all that does is force out the delicious juices, causing you to end up with dry, flavorless meat.

    If you must have flat chicken, pound it flat with meat hammer BEFORE you place it on the grill, otherwise you are just ruining a perfectly good bird.

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  16. Chris - We ended up with a very juicy chicken not dry in the slightest. As far as we were concerned it was perfectly cooked. The Romans cooked their chicken like this for centuries.

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  18. I love spatchcocking (sounds obscene!) a chicken!
    I posted this last summer and cooked it under a brick.
    It was the best!
    Love that it's grilling season again!

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  19. @ kat:

    The Roman Empire? Seriously? That's your justification for cooking meat in a way that flies in the face of modern cooking knowledge?

    If you want flat chicken, pound it with a meat hammer before hand and skip the paving stones. Try it, you'll get much more tender and juicy meat when you're done.

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  20. Chris S. - You've stated your opinion & readers of this blog can weigh their options.

    The Roman comment was meant to be flippant. The important part was that we tried a technique, ended up with a juicy chicken with a crispy skin & wrote about about OUR experience. Googling" Grilling Chicken Under a Brick" will bring up many other recipes for this method that also claim great results, recipes from places like Bon Appetit, Fine Cooking & many other blogs so its not like this is unheard of.

    Anyway I'm not going to change your mind &, unless I have a bad result, you aren't going to change mine so we might as well agree to disagree.

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  21. This is another thing I've always wanted to try! I swear I'd be happy to have a place at your dinner table every night.

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  22. Bricken Chicken- love the name.

    It looks so good. I sure wish my husband would catch the grilling bug.

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  23. Made it tonight and it was fabulous!! Absolutely NOT dry at all. I cooked it on a charcoal grill and was worried about controlling the heat, but it worked very well. I will definitely do this again!!

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