It’s time to get our your kitchen bricks because I have arrived this morning to share a brick chicken recipe! What?! You don’t have a set of kitchen bricks?? To have found yourself in this sticky situation, you either don’t have Chrissy Tiegen’s cookbook or you didn’t just finish a home remodel that left you with an extra case of bricks that you are looking to “repurpose” around the house. I can share if you’d like a set of your very own. Or you can find them for $1 each at Home Depot. Or you can just use anything heavy and heat safe to weigh the chicken down in the pan; in the photos for this recipe I simply used my cast iron skillet. However you manage, please just try this brick chicken. Bricks will change your entire chicken-cooking world. They weight the chicken down, pressing the skin against the pan and ensuring you end up with that delicious crispy skin but the meat inside is unbelievably juicy.
This vegetable melody is a recipe that began much differently and has morphed into the current form over the course of dozens of makings. My favorite tip that I discovered through the elevation of this is that you should wash your mushrooms with a damp paper towel rather than rinsing the mushroom as a whole. If you rinse them, the mushroom absorbed too much excess water and you’ll never be able to get it to that scrumptiously crispy state. Also, the more herbs, the better! This vegetable melody has become a staple in our kitchen and is whipped up at least once a week – this version is what we’ve fine tuned to our tastes but it’s also wickedly forgiving and endlessly alterable. It would make a fantastic and legendary Thanksgiving side dish for tomorrow as well – just sayin’. Enjoy!!
- 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped
- 3 tablesooons fresh sage, chopped
- 2 tablespoons garlic, minced
- 1 1/2 teapsoons red pepper flakes
- Kosher salt
- grated zest of 2 lemons, plus 2 skin-on lemons,quartered
- 4 bone-in skin-on chicken leg quarters (or 4 chicken breasts, if you prefer)
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 2 bricks, wrapped in foil!! (or your cast iron dutch oven, or really anything heat safe and heavy)
- 4 cups thinly sliced baby bella mushrooms (~2 regular sized boxes or 1 Costco box)
- 4 cups potatoes, diced
- 2 red peppers, diced
- 1 sweet onion, chopped
- 2 tablespoons thyme, chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 shallot, minced
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- Kosher salt
- Combine the olive oil, rosemary, sage, garlic, red pepper flakes, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and lemon zest. Pat the chicken dry and place in a baking dish. Rub the herb mixture all over the chicken, cover, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight, and up to 24 hours.
- Double-wrap the bricks in heavy duty foil (if using bricks). Heat a large, cast-iron skillet over medium high heat until hot. Add canola oil and then add the chicken, skin side down. Apply your weight of choice 😉
- Cook, without moving the chicken and without lifting the weight, for 7 to 9 minutes or until crispy and brown. Remove the weight and flip the chicken, apply the weight, and cook for 7 to 9 more minutes.
- Remove chicken from the pan and add the quartered lemon. Sear until slightly charred, about 1 minute per side. Serve the chicken with the vegetable melody and charred lemon for squeezing.
- Heat olive oil on medium-high heat in a non-stick pan until shimmering.
- Add the onion, shallot, garlic, and potatoes to the pan and cook until the potatoes are slightly softened and begnnning to brown, about 8 minutes.
- Add the mushrooms, thyme, and oregano to the pan and season with kosher salt to taste. Continue cooking until the potatoes are browned on all sides and the mushrooms are beginning to crisp, 6-8 minutes longer.
- Add the red peppers and cook until slightly softened, about 3 minutes.
- Dish up and enjoy!
- The Vegetable Melody makes a large batch so you should have leftovers for lunch the next day!
