- Amanda
Poor chicken. It gets treated as a means to an end. The protein that supports the so-called interesting flavors in a dish. It's the food that will offend no one (well, no one who eats meat). And the main course that's gluten-free and dairy free, but a prisoner of its practicality.
But if you give chicken a chance to shine on its own, you'll be surprised by how well it pays you for your efforts.
Italians like to cook chicken under a brick -- a real brick, though often wrapped less evocatively in foil -- to get extra crisp skin. When I worked at Albergo del Sole in Lombardy, and an order would come in for the brick chicken, my job was to run to the garden to clip some rosemary and get it in the pan with the chicken and some oil. The moments-from-harvest rosemary and the chicken pressed against the pan by the hefty brick made for a rewarding dinner.
For the cook, it's equally rewarding -- with the chicken turned skin-side-down in the pan for most of the cooking, you have to tinker with the heat so the skin browns and crisps just as the chicken finishes cooking through. Too much peeking and the brick won't get a chance to work its magic. You have to trust your instincts. Don't expect to get it right the first time around. Perfecting this is the fun part.
I've made a few changes to the recipe I learned in Italy. I season the chicken 30 to 60 minutes in advance, and pat it dry before frying. My Brooklyn apartment kitchen doesn't afford storage space for a brick so I just use a heavy pan to set on top of the chicken (which doubles well for making the sauce, since you can't make a wine-based sauce in a cast-iron pan). And in addition to the herbs, I've added sliced peppadew peppers -- although any lightly spicy pickled pepper will fly.
Are you going to give me a hard time for offering up a recipe that only serves two? No. No, you're not.
Can you double it? No. Sometimes recipes are made for two and only two. This is one of those recipes. Stay home with your spouse/partner/pal. Open a bottle of wine ... for two!
Can you make it in a non-stick pan? Yes, but I'd rather you give your cast iron skillet some love.
Chicken Under a Brick with Pickled Peppers
Serves 2
- 2 chicken thighs and drumsticks, still attached
- Kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 sprigs marjoram, thyme or rosemary
- 2 sprigs sage
- 1 garlic clove, smashed, skin left on
- 1/4 cup rose or white wine
- 1/2 lemon
- 5 peppadew or other small pickled hot peppers, thinly sliced
-
amanda
Before starting FOOD52 with Merrill, I was a food writer and editor at the New York Times. I've written several books, including "Cooking for Mr. Latte" and "The Essential New York Times Cookbook." I played myself in "Julie & Julia" -- hope you didn't blink, or you may have missed the scene! I live in Brooklyn with my husband, Tad, and twins, Walker and Addie.
Some past articles from this author you'll love:
Amanda's Beat Up Baking Sheet
Friday Night Dinner Party I
Advice for Future Food Writers
31 Comments on Chicken Under a Brick with Pickled Peppers:
12 bricks, two grills, 6 chickens cut in half, x2:)
I once read a recipe for this that said, "Cook skin side down until the aroma makes you drool. That is when it is time to turn it."
This also works great on a grill! I keep my brick on top of the fridge and love fielding questions about it.
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
added 10 months agoLove that kind of recipe writing.
Love chicken under a brick. Don't know why I haven't made it at home. Will fix that soon. Thanks, Amanda.
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
added 10 months agoAny time, mcs3000 -- hope you like it.
Made this last night - amazing! Definitely adding this to the rotation!
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
added 10 months agoCool.
Made this tonight, definitely will need to watch the heat a bit more carefully the next time, but WOW! So tasty, and so thankful for my awesome cast iron skillet.
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
added 10 months agoI feel the same way about my skillet. Now that it's well-seasoned, I have such great affection for it.
whoa!! you can do just about anything with anything, but the results will be different. cooking with acid in a cast iron pan will produce muddy results, I have a pan that is at least a hundred years old. no matter what I've cooked in it it will come back with the proper aftercare. while you were posting this recipe i was cooking grilled chicken under a brick for a gathering of 60 up in napa. no cast iron and no boneing, and it was a beautiful thing. all the bones were picked clean and full tummys for all.
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
added 10 months agoSounds great! How did you weigh them down -- 60 bricks? !
This looks great! Putting the ingredients on the list right now. I didn't know that about cast iron either so thanks for the info! I learn loads here every week!
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
added 10 months agoThanks aargersi!
Okay, what's for dinner tonight is solved! This recipe has everything that I love about chicken - especially the crispy skin part. Thanks!
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
added 10 months agoHope you enjoyed it.
If your old enough to remember issues with the old [ and my favourite ] Carbon Steel knives, and the damage that tomato, lemon or any other acid producing ingredient would cause ... then this all makes sense :-)
We've been big fans of brick chicken, Marlow and Sons-style, for years. This sounds like a delicious variation.
Funny. I was also going to mention the Marlow-style brick chicken, but the wife beat me to it. I love it, but one thing that's kind of a pain is prepping it at home, since it requires taking half a chicken, and removing the breast bone, ribs, and thigh bone, while still keeping the half chicken all in one piece. When you do it well, it makes a great presentation on the plate, and it's quite a lovely thing to eat, but it takes practice for a home cook to master the technique. Amanda's version is far simpler.
Amanda, this was wonderful - Mike made it over the weekend and we loved it. A couple of variations: we only had green garlic, so he used a couple of thumb-length sections of that in place of the garlic clove. We only had red wine so he went with Carpano Antica vermouth for the boozy component instead. Also, he used half a chicken as that's what we had available - boned out leg/thigh for him, supremed breast for me. The chicken was beautifully cooked, crisp-skinned and moist, and the sauce was to die for. Thanks for a terrific recipe!
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
added 10 months agoI haven't had the Marlow-style brick chicken -- sounds terrific! Next time, though, I'm trying your vermouth variation, since I have that one sitting around. Thanks for giving this recipe a whirl.
This looks so tempting-- and I am of the beef-loving variety rarely tempted by chicken! But I will definitely make this in the next few days. Great post!
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
added 10 months agoThanks!
This recipe looks so good, had brick cooked chicken in Italy before, so good. I'm with you singing baker never knew about acid in cast iron. Does that also mean tomato based sauces? I used my ast iron once for a tomato sauce now I'm wondering if I damaged it.
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
added 11 months agoI don't think it will damage the pan -- but it may affect the flavor and color of your sauce. Also, I just don't like adding a lot of liquids to my seasoned cast iron pans.
Thanks Amanda, I only did it once as a general rule I only use my cast iron for frying but its so good to know that it can actually harm the pan among other unpalatable side effects. Thanks so much and I am going to make this chicken I've never done it before it looks so delcious.
I never knew you shouldn't put acid in a cast iron skillet, why is that? does it eat away at the iron?
Not if it's properly seasoned, and if it's not properly seasoned you should season it before using it. Food52 has some great recipes, but they regularly engage in this repeating of conventional "wisdom" that's just wrong, wrong, wrong. I'd advice against putting a strong acid (like something from the hardware store) in cast iron, but most food acids are probably fine unless you're intending to do some long term storage, which cast iron isn't really good for anyway.
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
added 11 months agoHey foodie-pretense, what's up with the tone? We're happy to be corrected (although not in this case, because if you've ever added red wine to a cast iron pan, you know all about the mud-colored sauce you end up with) -- but how about presenting it in a helpful manner rather than a site-wide objection?
whoa! I had no idea this was such a hot button issue when I asked lol! Thanks for all the answers! p.s. I have never found any cooking advice on food52 to be wrong so I don't know what foodie-pretense is talking about.
this looks amazing.
Yes, foodie-pretense, this is a helpful and happy community site. Post nicely and respectfully, please. And I disagree; Food52 does not "regularly" post "wrong" information - you may not agree with what they are stating, yet that does not make it incorrect. As my husband likes to say, "There's more than one way to skin a cat" and I think that can be applied to cooking techniques, conventions and tricks, too.
Amanda, this chicken looks SO GOOD!
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