There is nothing like crispy chicken skin and achieving it can be a hit or miss. This chicken under a brick recipe is adapted from Marc Forgione’s debut book, and creates that crispy chicken skin we all love. I love it because the skin is crispy but the chicken is not dry. For his brick chicken, the chicken was deboned, which ensures more even cooking. Ok..ok, so this recipe has steps, but they are worth it! They are nothing over the top, but some technique is involved. So, let’s get into it!
One of the processes is to salt your chicken overnight in the fridge, uncovered. The salt seasons the meat and draws out moisture and the air circulating around the chicken helps to dry out the skin which equals crispiness when met with a hot pan.
You do not have to debone the chicken, but I loved how easy it was to eat and how much of the surface from the chicken touched the sizzling pan. Crispy!
You will be amazed by how little you have to use your knife. I opted to cut my chicken in half and freeze the other side. But if you want to see a master debone a chicken you must watch this video. It is easy to follow and go along with. ***how to debone a chicken*** Trust me, it is amazing!
After your chicken is deboned, all you have to do is season the skin side with salt and the flesh side with lemon zest, salt, and pepper–or your seasoning of choice. I decided to use salt, lemon zest, and creole seasoning.
After the rest in the fridge, bring up to room temperature and then oil a hot heavy bottom pan and place chicken skin side down. Then, that is where the brick comes into play (sorry no brick pictures).
Recipe: Roasted Crispy Chicken Under A Brick
Total Time: 1 day 20 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 whole chicken, deboned Or you can butterfly the chicken by taking out the backbone
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon creole seasoning
- zest of one lemon
- canola oil or oil of choice
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon shallots, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced
Instructions:
- Take your deboned chicken and pat dry. Season the chicken skin with salt and flesh side with salt and creole seasoning. Using a Microplane, finely zest your lemon over the flesh side of the chicken. Refrigerate uncovered, overnight, or for 6 hours.
- Preheat over to 425 degrees. Wrap the brick in aluminum foil.
- Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and let it rest at room temperature for at least 15 minutes. In an ovenproof skillet, add enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Set the pan over high heat, and just before it starts to smoke, add the chicken skin side down and shake the pan to prevent sticking.
- Reduce the heat to medium and place the brick on top of the chicken so that it is pushing down on all sides. Once the edges begin to brown, transfer the chicken to the oven and roast for 18 to 25 minutes. The skin should look golden brown and begin to crisp up.
- Remove the brick and check for doneness.
- Drop oven temperature to 300 degrees place chicken on a cooling rack, skin side up, and place in oven to keep warm.
- Place skillet of the chicken cooked, over medium heat. With a whisk, add chicken stock, dijon mustard, shallots, and pepper flakes. Bring to a boil making sure to get up all the brown bits. Lower heat and add butter and parsley. Serve sauce with chicken.
1 brick wrapped in aluminum foil will be needed. Chicken does not need to be deboned. Just make sure the backbone is removed.