All Hail the Mighty Chicken

Do yourself a favor and roast a chicken.

If you've never embarked on this wonderfully delicious adventure, I can't encourage you emphatically enough to do so. I've never in my life garnered this much joy from cooking any other dish, honestly. There really is a sweetly intangible feeling to taking a whole bird, prepping it, roasting it, and ultimately ending up with a show-stoppingly golden brown main dish.


For those of you who might shy away from cooking a whole chicken due to a perceived difficulty level, let me tell you this is a fool-proof recipe. Also, this particular cooking method (using a foil-covered brick on top of the roasting chicken) literally cuts the cooking time in half. You can have the bird on the table in under an hour!

Brick-Roasted Whole Chicken

1 whole chicken* with the backbone cut out (most butchers will do this for you)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 sprig of rosemary, chopped
2 lemons, juiced
olive oil
salt and pepper
crushed red pepper flakes
chopped parsley (optional)

This recipe is most delicious if the chicken marinates overnight. First, rinse and pat dry the chicken. Then place the bird inside a large zip-lock bag. Rub the minced garlic and chopped rosemary all over the front side of the bird. Add the lemon juice and 1/4 c of olive to the bag. Then, rub that chicken down one more time. Place the whole bag in a large bowl (in case it decides to leak chicken juices you won't be faced cleaning it out of your fridge later) and place it in the refrigerator overnight.

When you're ready to cook, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a large oven-safe skillet (I've found that a cast-iron skillet works the best), heat 2 tbsp of olive oil on the stove. Place the chicken, breast-side down, in the skillet and allow to brown for about 7 minutes. Then carefully place the skillet on the over rack (make sure there's plenty of room between racks) and drop a foil-covered brick across the top of the bird (position it such that the ends of the brick are resting on the underside of either thigh). Cook for 30 minutes. Then remove the brick from the chicken and take the skillet from the oven. Flip the chicken in the skillet (be extra careful here to ensure the skin stays stuck to the chicken and not your skillet). Place the skillet back on the oven rack, and replace the brick across the top of the chicken, for another 15-20 minutes of cooking.

Remove the brick from the chicken, and chicken from the oven. Sprinkle with crushed red pepper flakes and, if you'd like, squeeze a little more lemon juice on top and sprinkle on some chopped parsley. Of course, it's always a good idea to allow the bird to rest at least 10 minutes so the juices don't run out when you cut it.


Finally...



Slice that sucker up and serve it with roasted veggies (pictured: julienned parsnips and carrots) or a beet salad.


Note:
* Whole chickens are surprising inexpensive. I bought my organic beauty at whole foods for just over $10, AND there was enough meat on it for two meals plus extra that I'll probably use for the filling of chicken enchiladas or chicken tortilla soup!