The Building Block of Flavor, Literally.

Posted on by Cheryl Valadez

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Good grilling weather is coming soon and I want to share with you my favorite way to grill chicken, with a brick. I’m not only going to tell you how to grill the chicken, I am going to show you how to butterfly cut the chicken.  Sounds exciting doesn’t it?

  

 Also featured in today’s blog is a jerk spice rub from Nancy de Mond.  Nancy and my wife Cheryl participated in a homemade gift exchange and in the package from Nancy was a jar of her homemade jerk seasoning. Thanks for the jerk seasoning Nancy it was delicious! If anyone else wants to send me free food or spices, email me for my snail mail address.  I’m always available for a taste test!


To make brick chicken, you need a chicken, seasoning, a brick wrapped in foil and a grill. The most important part of brick chicken is cutting the chicken, for this you will need a pair of kitchen shears and a sharp knife.   To show you how to butterfly the chicken I made this short video.  Although this is my first video, I’m sure the Food Network folks will be calling any day now.  Does the sound track remind you of Deliverance too?  

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Once the chicken is cut, rub the entire chicken with oil, peanut or vegetable.  Then season liberally with the seasoning of your choice; be sure to season both sides. I cooked this chicken on my Weber gas grill over indirect heat at 350-400F.  For indirect heat, light the front and back burner and place the chicken between the burners.  Once the grill was up to temperature I placed the chicken skin side down on the grill and place the foil covered brick on top of the chicken.  Total cooking time for the chicken was about 50 minutes or until the internal temperature is 160F. I did flip the chicken about ½ way through cooking, just keep an eye on the skin and flip the chicken before it starts to burn.  Don’t forget to put the brick back on after flipping.

So that’s how it’s done.  Trust me once you try this technique you will never go back to the beer can chicken.  Nancy’s jerk seasoning was really tasty, it was a great blend of spicy and sweet, perfect with this chicken.  The brick really pushed that flavor into the chicken.  I really do think brick chicken tastes better, plus it’s also a lot easier to serve, just cut the chicken in ½ or ¼ depending on your appetite.  It tastes so good you’d better just take the ½.  I can’t wait to try this on a turkey!








3 thoughts on “The Building Block of Flavor, Literally.”

  1. I agree 100% that spatchcocked chicken cooks better than beer butt chicken, hands down.

    I need to do the brick technique more often because it works well too.

    Reply

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