For chef Joe Milenkovic, the obligatory chicken dish on a menu should still be a standout, and at Easy Bistro & Bar in Chattanooga, his secret weapons in that endeavor are a cast-iron pan and a brick wrapped in tinfoil.
Milenkovic learned the brick method nearly a decade ago while cooking at a restaurant in Manhattan and then brought it to Easy, which James Beard–nominated chef Erik Niel opened in 2005. Roast chicken sourced from North Carolina’s Joyce Farms always features on the restaurant’s menu, served with a rotating cast of seasonal vegetables. “But this is a great thing anyone can do at home that results in restaurant-quality chicken,” Milenkovic says. He himself loves to make it when he and his wife invite friends over for dinner.
“The brick is key,” he explains. “It expedites the cooking process and gives you a crispier, more even skin, plus plays a critical role in weighing down the chicken evenly.” For the chicken itself, he recommends a Whole Foods Bell and Evans spatchcock chicken or, if you’re feeling fancy, a Poulet Rouge from Joyce Farms. (If you can’t find a spatchcock chicken at the store, use a pair of kitchen shears to remove the backbone, then flatten it with your hands.)
“A really properly cooked roast chicken is just incredible and one of my favorite things,” Milenkovic says. Below, he shares his know-how, step by step.
Prepare your brick.
Take a brick—any old brick will do, as long as it’s generally clean—and wrap it in two layers of foil. (You’ll want two to ensure the brick won’t be exposed to your chicken directly at any point.) Preheat the oven to anywhere between 350°F and 425°F. “You want to push it as hot as you can when doing this at home, but I hate when I get grease everywhere and smoke out the kitchen,” Milenkovic says. “You can easily do it at 350°F or 400°F.” Now, pop your wrapped brick in the oven as you preheat.
Prepare your bird.
If you’ve bought a spatchcock chicken with giblets, remove them. Then season the chicken with salt and pepper, or you can brush on some soy sauce. If you want something fancier, Milenkovic likes to make an herb paste and smear it with a little spoon between the skin and meat—to do that, finely chop sage and rosemary, microplane some garlic and lemon zest, shake in some black pepper, and hydrate the mixture with a splash of olive oil. But salt and pepper alone are just fine, too.
Crisp up your chicken skin in the cast-iron pan.
Drizzle some oil in a cast-iron pan and allow it to become very hot—it’s ready when you see little wisps of smoke and the oil starts to look shimmery. Place the chicken in the pan skin-side down and leave it there until the skin reaches the point of caramelization. (If there’s any doubt about how well seasoned your cast-iron pan is, it’s okay to nudge your chicken back and forth a little to keep it from sticking.) This should take about 3–5 minutes, or check until the skin is golden-brown.
It’s roasting time.
Take your brick out of the oven, put it on top of the breast cage, and place everything in the oven. “The pressure from the brick is going to keep the chicken flat on the pan for a super crispy, even skin,” Milenkovic says, “because you’re cooking from both the pan below and the brick above.” This might take 35 minutes or so for a moist, juicy chicken, with some variation depending on the temperature of your oven. “I like to pull the chicken at 160°F internal in the fattest part of the breast, and then once you remove it, it’s going to climb up to 165°F, which is the safe temperature to eat chicken,” Milenkovic says.
Finish the chicken.
Remove the brick—carefully—and rest the chicken skin side up to preserve the crispiness. Then finish it however you like. If you’ve gone the simple salt and pepper route for roasting, you might baste it with a little butter, rosemary, and garlic or any other aromatics you want.
Bonus tip: Make a pan sauce.
Milenkovic believes roast chicken is always better with sauce, and after the roasting, you’ve got all the tools to make it with the fond (chef speak for the browned bits left in the skillet). “This could be as simple as adding a little bit of water to deglaze the pan,” he says. “Or it could be as intricate as sauteing shallots, garlic, and Calabrian chilies with the chicken fat and drippings.” If you really want to go next level, make a gravy; after you sauté, add a little bit of flour to make a roux, then tip in some white wine and chicken stock.
