Tonight we made the first recipe out of it, Italian Grilled Chicken Under Bricks. The basic idea is to take some salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, garlic and red pepper flakes; rub them under the chicken skin; and grill to perfection. A few things he notes, which I thought were interesting:
1) He butterflies the chicken instead of spatchcocking it. In other words, he cuts out the back bone and presses the thing flat.
2) The grill time was 20-25 minutes skin side down, on the cool side of the grill, with bricks on top and breasts on the outside of the grill. Then 10-15 minutes skin side up on direct heat and the bricks on top. Then 5-10 minutes skin side down WITHOUT the bricks on direct heat. The sum total was a perfectly done chicken. You just have to watch it for the last segment to make sure to avoid flare ups.
3) He simmers the herbs & spices in some olive oil before putting them on the chicken. Apparently this helps to avoid simply steaming the herbs and making them taste awful.
The chicken was absolutely fabulous. We had it with some naan, salad and a Riverwest Stein! Next time I'll do a little less salt.
Two tests that they ran which I found cool
1) The Weber chimney is their recommended chimney.
2) Matchlight charcoal will apparently give food an acrid flavor which is particularly noticeable in the tender foods. Avoid at all costs!
As you can probably tell, Andrea is really enjoying her present!
I am indeed!
ReplyDeleteFollowing CI's suggestion, we substituted a cast iron pan for the bricks (having no bricks on hand). It worked great, and the chicken was grilled to perfection. Yum.