Grilled Chicken Under a Brick

Jan in Lanark's Note:

An old Bonnie Stern recipe.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 15 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 3 lbs chicken, flattened
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

Directions:

1. You will also need: 2 bricks wrapped in aluminum foil.
2. To flatten chicken, stand chicken upright on your cutting board. Cut down on either side of the backbone and remove it. Cut off the first two parts of the chicken wing leaving only the top section.Press the two sides open and remove the breastbone but do not cut the chicken in half. Press the chicken as flat as possible.
3. Place olive oil, rosemary, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes in a shallow dish and stir well.
4. Place chicken in dish and coat well on both sides with marinade.
5. Marinate 10 minutes or up to overnight in the refrigerator.
6. Place chicken flat, with skin side up, on a hot BBQ. Place a brick on each half of chicken to flatten.
7. Cook 10 minutes. Lift the bricks off carefully, turn chicken, replace bricks and cook another 10 minutes.
8. Repeat until chicken is cooked through- about 20-25 minutes per side, turning once or twice.
9. When chicken is almost done, cook a few minutes per side without the bricks. Cook chicken on high or medium high the whole cooking time, but if it begins to burn, reduce heat.

Reviews

[Elainia]

My rating is due to the difficulty I had with cutting the chicken, not the actual recipe. This could possibly be due to my total and complete incompetency when cutting the chicken, but when I removed the breastbone as described I ended up with lots of splintered rib bones and a general mess of a chicken. I had a terrible time cutting through despite brand new high quality henckles knives. I persevered though and cooked as directed and it came out tender, very moist and the skin was wonderful. It took 1 hr 10 min on a charcoal (hardwood charcoal) grill which allowed me to read a book and relax while it cooked. Instead of wrapping the bricks, I laid the foil over the chicken and laid the bricks on top, just seemed easier to me. Thank you for sharing the recipe!

[zaar mate]

Really good!!! Had kind of a smokey flavor when done. I only used a slight sprinkle of the hot red pepper flakes..just because of the heat. I added some paprika in it's place. Other than that change, I did everything as directed. I will be making this recipe alot! Very easy. Thanks Jan!