Chicken Under A Brick or “Pollo al Mattone”

Written and Photos by Bob Zemmel, Owner of Alforno Trattoria

Chicken Under A Brick or “Pollo al Mattone”

For those of us who may be tired of ordering a hopefully well roasted, juicy chicken in one of best local restaurants for upwards of $26 to $30, this Chicken Under a Brick is a faster cooking method rather than roasting a chicken for 45-60 minutes at home. Additionally, it is a one-pan dish.

This old Florentine recipe simply requires that your meat department butcher butterfly a small chicken for you. Remember your local butcher is your best friend when it comes to purchasing meat. (The same applies for your fishmonger or fish department leader.)

Known as Pollo al Mattone in Italian, this modern technique allows for a lot of flexibility. Traditionally it calls for using a cast iron pan, but I have found that a thick, quality aluminum non-PTFE, nonstick pan makes for a bulletproof, never stick crispy chicken skin.

The recipes vary all over the place regarding the size of the chicken, the vegetables, herbs, and miscellaneous ingredients. We have the following choices:

- Poussin,- baby chicken, 4 weeks old about 16 ounces make a for a delicious single portion. A special order item and a bit on the expensive side.

- Cornish Game Hen, 6 weeks old, about 2-2.2 pounds will feed two people and makes for excellent flavor as well.

- A small Fryer chicken, 8 weeks old. 2.5 pounds will feed 2 people comfortably. These are hard to find, as most poultry producers now fatten the fryerbroilers to 3.5-4 pounds and that makes for a much longer cooking time, and you might throw up your hands and ask "what's the point?"

Ingredients:

This chicken shown here was a free-range chicken from the meat case of a local supermarket weighing in at 2.8 pounds. It is garnished with baby, creamy potatoes, a couple of garlic cloves, some shitake and oyster mushrooms, butternut squash cubes and a couple of fresh thyme springs along with the basic kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

But you can garnish this chicken with anything you like so long as it fits in the pan around the chicken.

So here are the ingredients in this version. Feel free to substitute anything you please including the brick. If you don’t happen to have a heavy brick lying around, feel free to place a heavy pot or pan as a substitute for the brick. It works just as well.

• One small chicken, whatever is available and will fit in your pan.

• 2-3 TB of vegetable oil to coat the pan as needed

• The weight, either a foil-wrapped brick or heavy pot/pan

• A couple of cloves of garlic

• Half dozen baby potatoes

• Some butternut squash cut into approximately one-inch cubes. ( A lovely autumn touch)

• A lemon to squeeze a bit of juice

• A couple of fresh thyme sprigs

• A few chopped chives or Italian parsley for garnish

• A little white wine, chicken stock, or even water to create a little sauce at the end of the cooking process.

Procedure:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees if your chicken is over two pounds. Pat your chicken of whatever size thoroughly dry and season both sides generously with kosher salt and pepper.

Turn on the burner to medium heat and bring the pan to temperature. Add the oil, the quantity adjusted to the size of your pan and chicken. If the little water droplets jump, your pan is ready.

Slowly lower the chicken skin side down into the hot pan and listen for the sizzle. Now weight your chicken with the brick or whatever you have and fry on medium heat. At this point, you can add all of the other ingredients surrounding the chicken. Cook until the skin side looks golden. You can check this with tongs or a sharp tined fork by gently lifting the corner of the chicken, (weight off). This could go from five minutes or more depending on the size of your bird. (If your chicken is on the small size, it may cook in as little as ten minutes, you can help the potatoes and squash along by par cooking them in the microwave until they are somewhat tender before the pan-frying.)

Now carefully turn the chicken over to do the interior side. You might have to temporarily remove the side items so you can set the bird back into the center of the pat to brown this side. If so, return the weight on top of the chicken and place all the side items around it. You can sprinkle these side items with a little salt and pepper, circling the chicken. If your chicken is on the larger size, after a few minutes, place the pan onto the top rack of your preheated oven. Set your timer for five minutes. Check the thicken by piercing the leg with an instant-read thermometer to reach 180 degrees, or the tines of a fork and look for the juices to run clear.

When the chicken is done, remove the pan from the oven and place on a heatproof surface and allow to rest for five minutes skin side up for the juices to settle inside.

Now you can cut in half or into pieces, sprinkle with minced fresh chive or parsley and serve with the assorted potatoes, squash, and mushrooms, etc.

If there is any liquid left in the pan, squeeze the lemon juice, and you can add an optional pat of butter, heat, and swirl, adjust for salt and pepper, and you will have a sensational sauce to spoon over the finished chicken.

This is a world-class entrée or at least top-flight Italian dish that never ceases to please.