You Too Can Make Chicken Under a Brick Indoors

The best thing about chicken is the skin.

Am I right? The crispy skin.

This is basically chicken under a brick,

indoors, under a pan,

in a cast iron skillet in half an hour.

That's what this is.

Half an hour for a whole roasted chicken.

Who can do that?

You?

You can do this!

So this chicken in unlike any other whole chicken

because its backbone has been taken out.

Flattening, is going to reduce the cooking time.

All this skin is gonna get exposed to the heat.

The oven is onto five hundred

and there's this ten inch cast iron skillet

already inside, preheating.

It's gonna be amazing!

Salt and pepper, nothing crazy.

This is olive oil, you can use vegetable oil.

So, like I said we are at five hundred degrees.

So this is getting the bottom of the pan really, really hot.

When I put the oil in, it's gonna smoke right away.

And shimmer.

Skin-side down. Making sure the skin is touching.

Any pan that you have will work.

And I'm gonna just press down

and it's gonna cut the cooking time.

Bye!

Alright.

Thirty minutes. See?

And in this thirty minute time period,

I could literally make almost any side dish imaginable.

I can make polenta.

I can make beans.

Crisp up some potatoes.

Boil some broccoli.

I can make a rice pilaf.

(chicken sizzling)

Alrighty, oh my God!

Things are really happening!

Oh my God it's beautiful. Look at her!

Ideally, you want your chicken to come up to 165

but it's okay to take it out of the oven at 160.

And I'm just going into the deepest part of the thigh.

It's not there yet.

I feel like it could just get a little browner.

I'm gonna keep it skin-side down for the last five minutes.

Do you guys hear something?

(electronic beeps)

It's time.

(chicken sizzles)

(thermostat dings)

Look at that chicken!

So I'm just gonna let this guy hang out.

5 or 10 minutes.

A little vino.

And I'm gonna cook that wine off.

A little bit of chicken stock.

Whatever herbs you have.

That's it.

(men laughing)

Coming to you live from the Bon Appetit kitchen.

This is Carla Music, I'm signing off.