Transplanting one culture into another is always an interesting experience. Take the example of my parents. They were both born overseas and met here as students in Australia where they married and had children. As a result they and my sister and I became part of Australian culture. However they still do things with their very own twist with habits formed from when they grew up in Singapore and Hong Kong. Sometimes it’s as though they only got half the brief! 
My father bought a barbecue-because of course that’s what Australians do you see. However in our case the barbecue sat covered in the garage, spotlessly clean and only gets to see daylight once every five or so years. Come summer there aren’t barbecued spreads eaten on tables on the grassy lawn (the lawn of course has been tiled over as my parents are not at one with nature). The last time the BBQ was used I witnessed my father going downstairs to barbecue the meat only to take it back upstairs to eat in the proper dining room.
This barbecue recipe necessitated taking out the BBQ again. It was a bit of a production as it was several years since its last outing but I promised them that it was worth it. You see the whole idea behind cooking a brick chicken or spatchcock is that firstly, splitting the bird in half makes it quicker to cook. Also the idea of using a heated brick on top means that the meat cooks very evenly and that the legs are cooked before the breast has a chance to dry out with the added heat and pressure from both top and bottom. The bricks act very much like a pizza stone in retaining heat. My father, a naysayer if ever there was a definition of one, kept saying the whole time “This won’t work, this won’t work” and the whole time I was confident that it would.
I used some lovely spatchcocks from The Game Farm that were sent to me. These were range reared spatchcocks without any added hormones. A spatchcock is a poussin or a young chicken and these ones were bred and grown in the NSW Southern Highlands and the Sydney basin. I first saw this method done on the blog Abbotsford Kitchen where it intrigued me. I used a simple marinade from Nigella Bites which involved simply the items I had at my disposal: lemon, garlic, oil and salt and pepper. I like doing spatchcocks as they are easy to butterfly and they are great for portion control too with each bird weighing between 450-600grams. Of course you could easily do chicken and you could do it in the oven rather than a BBQ and just adjust the cooking time as detailed below.
So how were the birds? They were juicy, succulent and flavoursome and everyone remarked on how moist they were – even the breast portion which is usually on the drier side. The cursory two hours marinating imparted a good dose of flavour and aroma and we’d imagine marinating these overnight would be even more exquisite. We cooked these just as the last vestiges of summery warmth were disappearing and with this long, long weekend coming up I thought it would be timely to offer this recipe up to you. And of course we brought these upstairs to eat. I bet you knew that right?
So tell me Dear Reader, do you barbecue a lot?
Brick Chicken or Spatchcock
- 2 free range chickens or 4 spatchcocks
- 1/2 cup oil divided into two
- 8 cloves garlic, bruised (or less if you are vampirically inclined)
- 4 lemons, halved
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Oil for BBQ
- 1 brick per chicken or spatchcock
- Aluminium foil & thick gloves
1. Take two large ziplock bags (I use 1 bag per chicken or per 2 spatchcocks) and add 1/4 cup of oil, 4 garlic cloves and the juice of 2 lemons and some freshly ground pepper to each bag. Leave the bags open so that you can slide the chicken or spatchcocks inside easily.
Le spatchcock
Place it breast side down with the backbone facing upwards and lean down on the chicken to flatten it slightly
Cut out the backbone with strong, sharp scissors
Press down on the chicken to flatten it again
2. Butterfly the chicken or spatchcock. I find this easiest with spatchcock because and this may sound ghoulish, they have smaller bones so cracking and cutting the backbone out is easier. I use a sharp pair of scissors-the OXO pair I bought on sale seems to do the trick nicely. Take the spatchcock or chicken out of the plastic. Turn the chicken over so that the back bone is facing up and cut along the outside of the backbone on either side starting at the fleshy bishop’s nose all the way up to the neck. Remove the backbone-you can use this to make chicken stocks. Remove the opaque pieces of fat from the chicken towards the top and bottom and rinse the inside and pat it dry on paper towels. Place them in the ziplock bags and marinate overnight or for at least a couple of hours in the fridge. Remove from fridge about an hour before you want to cook them to let them come to room temperature.
The birds marinating
Heating up the bricks
3. Heat up the BBQ to high or the oven to 225c/440F. Wash the bricks with water and place the bricks on the BBQ or inside the oven to heat up. If you are using the oven, also heat up the baking tray. After about 10-15 minutes the bricks should be very hot. In the meantime tear off enough rectangles of foil that will cover the chickens or spatchcocks so that the bricks don’t touch them directly. Using very thick gloves, move the bricks aside and add the extra oil to the BBQ. Place the birds skin side down and flat out. Cover with a piece of foil and then the hot brick and then turn down the heat slightly between medium and hot and let it cook for 10 minutes for the spatchcocks or 20 minutes for the chickens.
Birds under the bricks!
4. When the time is up, take the brick and foil off the birds and carefully turn over the birds and then replace the foil and brick back on top of the birds and cook for another 5-8 minutes for the spatchcocks or 15 minutes for the chickens. BBQs vary even more than ovens so do check on doneness-the important part to check when cooking is the large drumsticks, if the juices run clear when you pull it gently then it is done.
5. When done remove chicken from the BBQ and sprinkle with salt and serve jointed-it’s very easy to cut up!
If you enjoyed this post, why not share it with your friends?
What is NQN up to now? 
NQN on Facebook
RSS
73 Comments | Add your own
What an interesting way of cooking them! Those spatchcocks look scrummy.
Cheers,
Rosa
I love spatchcock with garlic and yogurt sauce but yours look not bad either. Chargrilled eh!
I’ve heard about this method! The spatchcock looks great! Unfortunately we don’t even have a BBQ – I never got used to using it and my partner wasn’t brought up Australian so he doesn’t really miss it either
Brick chicken is quite popular here, along with beer can chicken. And yeah, I’d say we BBQ quite a bit. We even bust out the BBQ in the middle of winter. Though we don’t get snow here, I know friends in snow country that BBQ right through the winter blizzards!
what an interesting cooking method!
Nice post. The spatchcoks look amazing.
I moved to Australia, via two years in New Zealand, and had previously spent my lofe growing up in the country that I was born in – Fiji. Considering that I’m a fourth generation INDIAN, born in Fiji, My culinary influences tend to be quite eclectic.
So the long and short of it is – we don’t really barbecue. The closest we got to it in the old country was putting a metal hotplate over extremely hot stones. When we moved over here, of course we got a barbecue, but in the past 8 years, it has probably been used 5 times, and sits covered in my parent’s garage, used as an shelf.
What we do, do, however, is lovo. Basically, we dig a giant hole in the ground, build a fire, add stones, put in a large variety of meats, vegetables and starches, all wrapped in foil and swimming in copious amounts of coconut milk, cover with coconut leaves and wet burlap sacks, and then top with the earth we dug the hole out of. Let it cok for 4 to 5 hours, and you basically get our version of Christmas dinner.
Nice post NQN!
^___^
My husband is a lot like your dad, the bbq sits under the pergola covered and rarely used until I insist that it gets used at least once or twice during Summer! He doesn’t cook you see and just the thought of tending the bbq sends shivers up his spine,lol. Inadvertently, I usually end up barbecuing myself.
I love spatchcocks and this recipe looks very tasty indeed.
This is a great idea, I’ll get my hubby on to it
I would use the bbq more than anything, I love anything cooked on the bbq, either on the plate or the bars. I usually do the cooking as my husband is useless cooking with it, he THINKS he is the masterful bbq cooker, but unfortunately, each time i trust him to cook something, it gets ummmm burnt, overcooked, undercooked – a shame when I spend good money on good meat and chicken etc. So now he is BANNED! I have suggested he go and do a course, but being male, and having the classic male ego bruised like that, wont!!
Most importantly, what did the naysayer say??
PS the brick idea is brilliant!
Your ideas and writing style are a joy to read! Cant wait to try Brick Chicks x
Oh how I can relate to this!
My parents migrated from Europe to Australia in the mid-80′s. My husband’s family did the same but from Sri Lanka.
But since my husband and I were only 6 months old at the time we’re about as Aussie as they come.
We’re so lucky to have the influence of the two (…well technically three) cultures and the food…the food is amazing! I can only imagine the stories our future ‘Australian-Armenian-Sri Lankan’ kids will have for show and tell!!
In South Africa we call these flatties! They are a regular on the braai back home. Looks delicious Lorraine! x
~~L.
I am getting an entire education…I feel as if I should be paying you per semester! xxx The chicken looks good enough to EAT NOW!
Good looking birds Lorraine! I never barbecue – I am an apartment dweller, and barbecuing on the balcony is not appealing. Although I have enjpyed some great barbecues as a “grown up”, they also remind me of the truly awful Xmas barbecues with extended family growing up, and the woeful barbecues (complete with watery orange cordial and sugary buns) we used to have at my uni college when they had a fancy function on and couldn’t use the kitchen.
Hmmm think this could be recreated with a turkey? Guess I’d need a tile for size!!
Haha great idea Kylie! And a very heavy pair of scissors too!
Hi Chopinandmysaucepan-he was rendered speechlessly impressed and had to admit that it worked
Eeek backbone! That makes me squemish
But what a cool method! It looks so tasty.
I love BBQs, but sadly we didn’t do enough of it during summer.
Love the simple marinade
I saw Tobie Puttock do this on a chicken at FlavourFest last year.
Must find me some bricks…
This is the same as my Chinese parents. We only use the BBQ once in a blue moon and even so, we bring the cooked meat into the house and eat it at the dining table lol
Lately, we’ve been able to convince mum that it’s ok to eat outside (aeroguard, CHECK!), so we had a neat Korean BBQ meal while it was still Summer.
Love your recipe!
Have a great long weekend =)
Have heard of this way of cooking before – makes heaps of sense. No, am not a bbq person either, but use a flat, electric grill plate inside almost every day – no reason the method can’t be adapted!
Noelene -have had lots of wonderful lovo meals as some of husband dear’s family lived near Korolevu. What excitement when the pit was opened! What incomparable flavours to go with the rum punch!! Thanks for the memory!
Love this, so creative! The marinade looks beautiful. I love to BBQ in the summer. So fast, simple and fresh. BBQ’d asparagus is a fav. Ben’s mad about BBQd mushrooms.
Heidi xo
Hi Lorraine – we are about to head off camping for Easter and think this could work really well over the embers of the campfire! Yummo!
Great idea, Lorraine, and the birds look utterly delicious! But was it enough to convert your doubting dad?
Hi Amanda-it was! Hehe he never thinks anything will work
Hi Danielle-Oh fabulous, do let us know if it works if you try it!
Haha my Asian family is the same -we’ve only used our BBQ once and it’s been sitting, covered, in my garage ever since! I’m just waiting till I move out so I can take it from them and there’ll be heaps of BBQing!
hehe! Get naysayer to clean the barbie then.
Now that our barbecue season is really just starting for us, this is perfect. Brick hunting I will go. We have a infrared grill which makes everything very moist, even chicken breast, and we use it all year long. No chance of finding a new, shiny grill in our garage:)
That looks delicious. So bad, but I’ve never tried spatchcock. Must try it.
I love anything on a BBQ. Meat, fruit, vegies. Love it all. We don’t have a BBQ at the moment at our new home so we are very deprived. Hoping to buy one soon!
Always love learning something new and now this is on my “List To Do!” WHOO HOO! Thanks!
Oh I’ve heard of BBQ chicken on brick before somewhere…just never seen it! I haven’t had BBQ in a while, but now that I think of it, there is a BBQ pit right outside my door…
We haven’t been BBQing this year because our plate rusted through and we haven’t gotten around to replacing it! Such a shame because where we live now is much more conducive to BBQs – with a big deck to enjoy them on!
I do love a good barbie, and when I was with my ex-husband we barbecued dinner regularly during summer and even the cooler months (we had one of those upright heaters). I have a BBQ where we are living now, but it’s built into a wall and every time I open it, it is full of lizards, which freaks me out. So no, we don’t bbq, but we miss it.
If only we could figure out a way to combine brick chicken with beercan chicken, we’d have alliteration gold!
What karma! I just wrote a magazine piece about a local restaurant’s brick-cooked chicken. The dish is so popular that the chef can’t ever take it off the menu. He loves it so much that he even eats it for lunch at the restaurant a couple of times a week. This is such a great method that ensures crisp skin and succulent meat. And it’s a breeze to do at home, as you so expertly show.
Two of my fav things together finally…bricks and chicken!
You know I love my BBQ Lorraine, so this one is going straight to the top of the dinner line this Easter weekend! Oh yeah!
Tried this before – great technique, the compression from the weight of the bricks seems to change the texture of the meat… Shame that the cold weather is rolling in now.
I’m intrigued! I’d love to give those bricks a whirl…just have to hunt someone down with a bbq. I’m sure I’d be a bbq person given half a chance
This looks awesome. If only our BBQ wasn’t packed away I’d be out there making it now!
We take the BBQ out about once or twice a year. Too lazy and too much hassle.
Brick chicken – pollo mattone – is a speciality of Marco’s restaurant across the bridge from us in Bagni di Lucca. He has a sepcial contraption in the kitchen to do it. I’m going to ask if I can look at the secret device. In the meantime I have bought a terracotta pollo mattone arrangement to do it at home in the oven, with excellent results.
Terrific idea! This way you get the chargrilling but with the indirect heat as well letting you control the temperature and speed up the cooking.
I love to BBQ, I think it’s the only way to get a steak or chop juuuuust right. A fry pan is just not the same as a big castiron plate.
We cook all the veggies and stuff on it at the same time, and sometimes take the flat plate off to get to the burners to be able to use a couple of woks at once for stirfrying.
Oh yessss…. Mr HG has been nagging me about cooking him *Brick Chicken*. I’d researched it, and wondered whether special bricks were required? Turns out not. I love it. I shall have a crack at this ASAP. Cheers Lorraine.
We tried the brick method after seeing it on Jamie Oliver and it works really well! Your spatchcock look so good!
Yum. We plumbed our new bbq to the house natural gas, put a monster range hood above it and have an outdoor kitchen now which we use all the time. Between standard bbqing and the wok burner it would get used a couple of times a week throughout the year. Nothing tastes as good as a bbq – and having no chance of running out of gas and plenty of space in which to work makes it very handy.
Wow! what a great idea! Fantastic looking flat birds.
I must try this!
Heating up the brick is such a great idea! When we bought the place, the first thing Mr J wanted was a bbq. I was being practical and said “No. We need bed, couch, tv, bookshelves” but all he could think about was getting his own bbq so I had to give in – and now he’s as happy as a duck to water. Heh! Us Aussies and our love of barbie!
We use our BBQ rarely, maybe once or twice a year, but it’s wonderful when we want that charcoal, smokey taste to our meat
I’ve been having trouble finding a spatchcock recipe that I liked, so we’ll give this a go.
I tried this in a frying pan and it was really good. Can’t remember the name of the place but I saw it on Martha Stewart, was an organic cafe in New York
PS I didn’t use a brick, just something heavy !
Fab idea – shall show ‘the man’ and get it going on our BBQ – which you well know – gets more of a work-out than your Dad’s!! (and does that story surprise me? Nup
)
We had a BBQ party last Sunday, this just made me crave for another BBQ party this coming Easter Sunday. Bless your creativity! ^^*
This chicken looks moist and “just right”. I guess you made a believer out of your dad:) We’ll have to try this. We BBQ “Santa Maria” style every couple of months, which is tri-tip(over red oak), with garlic bread, green salad and pinquito beans:) It’s very tasty and very well known/popular in this neck of the woods! Here’s a link, Lorraine:
http://santamariavalleybbq.com/2009/02/21/grill-it-yourself/
Showed Hubby your spatchcock and he is rarin’ to go when the rain lets up. Over here, instead of it being spatchcock, we have Cornish Hen. My favorite poultry over chicken . This brick bird plate is gorgeous,Lorraine.
Yes we do bbq a lot, even in winter as we have a very large pergola and my husband has a hooded BBQ.
That’s a great idea. I once did a butterflied chook like that on the bbq and it took forever. The breast was so dry by the time it was cooked through. Next time I’ll add the brick!
I’m going down to the shops for ingredients, and making this tonight. How to stop the drool in the meantime…….?
Sometimes, I hate cooking chicken on a barbecue grill because they take so long to cook,and they don’t cook evenly. This method certainly produced some kick-ass barbecued poultry.
I have to say that barbecue is really an Aussie thing. Growing up in Singapore, we have barbecues probably once every four months? But when I was living in Melbourne, I had barbecue about six times in 3 months (during summer).
Ooh, what an interesting way to cook chicken! I’ve had BBQ’s, but we just do the boring thing and put the chicken on top, turning occasionally. Though I found out that if you wrap sweetcorn in foil and put it inside the BBQ with the coal, it gives the most amazing yummy corn on the cob
I adore barbeque, but we rarely do it. Mr P bought a lovely barbeque last summer, and we haven’t used it yet
, such a shame. I love the idea of cooking chicken under a brick, I have yet to try it though.
*kisses* HH
Lorraine , u come with the most amazing stuff!
This is something i would totally love for some!
How deliciously exciting!
Thanks a bunch for all the love and care!
Haha, I’ve never lived in a house but my parents always said that if they ever moved into a house that all grass would be concreted over only to leave a small patch for planting such Chinese essentials as spring onions and chillies!
spatchcock is such a fun word. i don’t barbecue myself, but i’ve gotten really good at scoring invites to other people’s backyards!
cool idea!.. i’ve never tried butterflying chicken before because i’ve always been too scared.. could you do this without doing that? hm..
They look delicious! I definitely don’t barbecue enough.
Wow I would never think of using bricks during cooking!
What an interesting BBQ cooking technique, will have to give that one a go when the weather warms up again or there is a nice sunny winters day.
Interesting use of the bricks. I dare say, my dad might have also used the bricks on the birds, but er.. sadly, in a much less family-friendly un-bloggable way. I’m much more likely to try this method on barbecued birds next time!
One Trackback/Pingback
[...] quail as well as spatchcock, duck and corn fed chicken. I used their spatchcock when I made my brick birds and it was lovely and tender.Thanks to Game Farm, three lucky Not Quite Nigella readers will [...]
Post a Comment