Pollo al Mattone

"Pollo al Mattone," which is cooked with a brick to weigh it down and make it crispy."

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:
Chickens sufficient to feed your party
The herbs of choice
Preparation:

In introducing the recipe in La Cucina Toscana, Giovanni Righi Parenti says it's extremely old: Frescos depicting what appears to be a grill with a chicken being flattened by a stone occur in Etruscan tombs.

How to proceed? Clean the bird, chop off the neck (many Italian chickens still come with neck and head attached), and split it up the breast, then press it flat and pound it well with the flat of a thick-bladed knife, as if you were pounding a cutlet.

Make a rub by mincing a few leaves of sage, one or two cloves of garlic, salt, abundant freshly ground black pepper, and a little red pepper. Rub the rub into the meat, rub it with abundant olive oil, and set it aside until you are ready to grill it (if you do this do this the day before, letting it marinate in the oil, you won't have to baste as you grill).

Once the coals are ready -- you want them hot but not searingly hot -- lay the bird over them and place a well-cleaned brick over it to help keep it flat. Use a potholder to lift the brick when it's time to turn the bird over.

Mr. Parenti suggests 15-20 minutes' cooking time, which in my experience isn't enough -- I often grill chicken for close to an hour. Exactly how long you do cook the bird will depend upon its size and the heat of the fire; it will be done when you sick a skewer into the wing joint and the juices run clear.

Mr. Parenti also notes that if you do not marinate the bird in olive oil, you will have to baste it with olive oil repeatedly as it cooks lest it dry out.