Anytime you’re roasting a chicken and your priorities are fast cooking and copper-tone skin, spatchcocking should be your first move.
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But if you really want to ratchet up the speed and skin browning, you should roast it al mattone.
The ancient Tuscan approach takes the benefits of spatchcocking (also known as butterflying) to the next level by pressing the flattened bird under a weight—traditionally a brick (mattone) or lidded terracotta vessel, or sometimes just a slab of metal, pottery, or stone—as it cooks.
Forcing the bird to make even better contact with the pan means more heat transfer, faster cooking, and deep browning.
For the Juiciest Spatchcocked Bird, Utilize Carryover Cooking
Carryover cooking, where heat on the food’s surface migrates to the cooler center as it rests, is inevitable when preparing a whole bird. But it’s especially dramatic here, where the chicken has been pressed against the hot pan, which raises its surface temperature and drives more heat to the center. To take advantage of this, we remove the chicken 10 degrees shy of the breast’s target doneness. During a 20-minute rest, its temperature rises to the 160-degree doneness mark without overshooting it.
Frankly, it’s an ingenious and visually impressive way to roast a chicken, which explains why pollo al mattone, also called “chicken under a brick” or “brick chicken,” has not only endured into the modern era but also become a signature approach to chicken-roasting in some of the world’s most illustrious restaurant kitchens.
And because it’s low-tech (don’t have a brick? just use a heavy pan), it’s an equally smart option for busy home cooks.
Our method also incorporates smart seasoning and cooking tweaks that lead to superjuicy meat, and a bright, bold Tuscan-inspired pan sauce enriched with the golden chicken jus and seasoned with plenty of herbs, garlic, and lemon.
Pollo al Mattone Mechanics
Pair the speed and exceptional browning of Tuscan “brick chicken” with thoughtful prep and cooking tweaks, and you’ve got the handsomest, juiciest roast chicken—in record time.
- Spatchcock Flattening the bird puts both the white and dark meat in direct contact with the heat source, encouraging faster cooking.
- Salt Under the Skin Applying salt directly to the meat rather than to the skin leads to better seasoning. Plus, the skin holds the salt in place so that it doesn’t fall off during cooking.
- Add Weight Pressing the chicken with bricks speeds cooking even more by forcing it to maintain contact with the hot pan. It also keeps the bird flat so that the skin browns deeply.
- Stop Cooking Early. Removing the chicken from the oven before it’s done takes advantage of carryover cooking. As it rests, the breast’s temperature rises to the 160-degree target without overshooting it, so the meat is tender and juicy.
Turn Pan Drippings into a Punchy, Herby Sauce
Rather than seasoning the meat with Tuscan flavors such as rosemary, garlic, and lemon, we mix them into the chicken’s pan drippings to create a zesty, rich-tasting vinaigrette that gets spooned over the carved meat. The presentation is elegant, and the dressing’s moisture and bold flavor hit every bite.
Pollo al Mattone (Chicken Under a Brick)
Take spatchcocked roast chicken to the next level by pressing the flattened bird under a weight as it cooks.
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