This looks like a pretty normal piece of roast chicken, right? But if you could bite into it, you’d notice it has crispier skin and is a lot juicier than normal. As usual, the Italians figured out a better way to cook something. In this case, it involves pressing a brick on a butterflied whole chicken and roasting it in the oven. This is how it looks when it’s done:
It only takes about 45 minutes, and not a lot of work.
Adapted from September 2009 Bon Appetit.
Grocery list: 1 whole chicken, butterflied (ask the butcher to do it for you - it means to remove the backbone and cut the chicken so it can be spread apart to lay flat); 2 sprigs rosemary, 3 garlic cloves, 1 lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper.
I finally broke down and got a little mortar and pestle, and I’m realizing it’s useful for a lot of different things. If you have one, mash the garlic cloves with a generous pinch of kosher salt (a couple teaspoons) and minced rosemary, to form a paste.
(You could also use the flat side of a chef’s knife or the tines of a fork to mash the garlic, but look how easy it is with this little gadget.)
Juice the lemon and stir into the garlic-rosemary paste, along with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
Lay the chicken skin-side up in a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle the marinade all over the chicken, and rub it in with your hands to make sure the skin is coated. Let it rest for 30 minutes in the fridge, or cover and marinate for up to 24 hours.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Wrap a standard brick - I picked this one up at Home Depot for a few cents - in aluminum foil.
Heat an oven-save skillet over medium-high heat, and cook the chicken skin-side down for 7 minutes.
Press the brick right into the center of the chicken, then transfer into the oven.
Roast for 30 minutes, then remove from the oven. Remove the brick, carefully flip the chicken over with tongs. Replace the brick and continue to roast for another 15 minutes. Allow the chicken to rest on a platter for 5 minutes before carving (so it reabsorbs some of its juice).
August 17th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Oh wow, this was delicious. I will be making it over and over again. Plus, it was so much easier to cut this way. I’ll use the butterflied chicken even for regular baked recipes now. So yummy!
August 17th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
I’m so glad you liked it Stacy! I think you’re right - why would you roast a whole chicken without butterflying it first, since it cooks so much faster? I never even thought of it before I saw this recipe though