Chicken grilled under a brick

A friend recently reminded us of a recipe where you cook a whole chicken under a brick. In the September 2009 issue of Bon Appetit, Chef Rob Suhanosky of Sfoglia restaurant in New York describes perfectly how this is done.

Of course we were in "town" (this requires a 45 mile round trip) and the local grocer had beautiful, plump, whole chickens for $.79 a pound. We bought one over 4 pounds but did not have the recipe with us. So we improvised and we were pleased with the results. You can marinade this chicken any way you wish. The technique is what makes this so good and so much fun.

Cut on either side of the backbone and remove it. Flatten the chicken with the palms of your hands. Marinade overnight. We used what we had on hand....olive oil, lime juice, (could be lemon), oregano, Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper and a couple of cloves of garlic.

We decided to grill over charcoal and indirectly for fear of flare-ups. You can do this directly over charcoal or gas grill. In fact, the Chef cook his at 400 degrees in the oven.

We layed two aluminium wrapped bricks on top of the back of the chicken to first give the breast a nice browning. Left it for about 15 minutes. Then turned the chicken over and again put the bricks on top for about 30-40 minutes.

The chicken was very juicy and tender. It almost cooked itself.