Chicken is served in this house more times a week than any other meat. Sometimes it really becomes a challenge to make it delicious, interesting and different. I had two chicken quarters staring at me and no clue what I was going to do with them. I have a wonderful friend that is an amazing cook. Patty has a blog called Cooking On A Budget, she cooks and she does it very, very well. She makes budget friendly dinners that are delicious. I saw Crispy Chicken Under Brick on her blog, it stuck in my head because it just looked incredible. Let me say here that I’m not an adventurous cook, I can bake up a storm, but cooking is something I need to work on. I have a tendency to not move to far out of my comfort zone. As I talked to Patty about the recipe, she gave me encouragement to try it. Patty made it with a whole chicken, I had 2 quarters… I didn’t have a brick, she said I could use a cast iron skillet. With a minor adjustment, I was ready to make it.
After marinating the chicken quarters they went into a cast iron skillet to brown. Since I didn’t have a brick, I used another cast iron skillet with the bottom wrapped in foil and greased slightly. I placed it on top of the pan of chicken quarters and cooked the chicken till it was beautiful brown on both sides. I removed the quarters from the frying pan, put them in a baking dish and again placed the foil wrapped cast iron pan on top of it and baked for about an hour. I also decided to put a pan of assorted veggies in the oven to roast along with the chicken.
Dinner was magnificent! my son said it was the best chicken he ever ate. The marinade, cooking the chicken in the pan first and then baking it under the pan or brick, made the chicken deliciously brown and fall off the bone tender and flavorful. my son made me promise to be friends with Patty for the rest of my life. Girl, you are all that and more! Thank you for encouraging me to make your fantastic recipe. I’ll be scouring your blog for more!
Need some dinner inspiration? Check out Cooking On A Budget for delicious budget friendly recipes!
Crispy Chicken Under brick
Ingredients
- 1 four pound whole chicken or chicken parts
For the Marinade
- 4 garlic cloves - finely minced
- 1/4 cup Olive Oil
- 1 tbsp . Paprika
- 3 sprigs fresh Rosemary - leaves finely chopped
- 3 tbsp . fresh Parsley - finely chopped
- 1 tsp . crushed red pepper flakes
To make a Sauce
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1 cup chicken broth
Instructions
- Wash the chicken parts or whole chicken and pat dry with paper towels. If using a whole chicken ,remove the backbone and press down on the chicken to crack the breast bones. Remove the wing tips.
- Next, salt and pepper both sides of the chicken. Place the chicken in a plastic bag, or a container. Combine all of the marinade ingredients and rub all over the chicken. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour, or overnight.
- Just prior to cooking, remove the chicken from the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature. If using a whole chicken tie the legs together with butchers twine.
- Coat a large saute pan, a heavy duty skillet or roasting pan with olive oil. Lay the chicken skin side down in the pan. Place another heavy duty skillet or pan lid on top of the chicken along with the bricks and over moderate heat cook the chicken about 5-8 minutes to deeply brown the skin.
- Flip the chicken over and cook the other side for 2 minutes. Flip it back over and place the whole thing (bricks and all) in a preheated 400° oven. Cook for about an hour - until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees.
- Remove from the oven and place the chicken on a platter and cover with foil to keep warm while you are making the pan sauce.
- Take out some of the fat, then over medium heat de-glaze the roasting pan with 1/2 cup white wine, stir and allow this to reduce by half. Then add in 1 cup chicken broth, stir and simmer to incorporate all of the flavors and reduce the liquid to half. Spoon this flavorful sauce over the plated chicken.
I can only imagine how wonderful this chicken dish tasted. With you at the controls and Patty Anderson chiming in there is only one possibility for the outcome: Deliciously successful! Wonderful post and recipe here, congrats on such a fine post!
Thank you Dan, you and Patty are amazing cooks. My husband is benefiting from me reading both your blogs! LOL!
What may I substitute for the rosemary, red pepper flakes and fresh parsley?
My husband, nor I, like the taste of rosemary any longer (long story); fresh parsley is not available where we live; and neither of us are able to eat spicy foods (ulcers). (I guess we should just stick to cardboard and flavorless foods, eh?)
Please help. Thank you!
Dried parsley could be subbed for fresh, you can use Thyme or Tarragon for the Rosemary. Skip the pepper flakes, it won’t hurt the recipe. Put the spices you like in it Rachel. It’s the technique of cooking that makes this chicken so very tender. Cooking it under the brick makes it very moist and tender. Just put some spices together that you and your husband like.
Hi Bunny, I just recently found your blog and love your recipes. I plan to make the Crispy Chicken Under Bricks: I would love it if you could add to your recipes the roasted veggies that are in the photo. I know how to roast the vegetables, but I see that you have added herbs and I would like to know what you used. Can you help? Thank you Bunny “In His presence is fullness of joy.”
Kathy when I roast veggies I just salt and pepper them, then toss them in olive oil. The oven does the rest. I hope you make this it was delicious!