Hot food: Brick chicken

What is it?

Pollo al mattone, or brick chicken, is a traditional Tuscan method for cooking chicken on an open grill, weighted down with a brick or a stone. Sounds simple, and it is, yet the end result is better than you would think possible. Flattening the chicken allows for greater dispersal of heat and faster cooking time, and weighting it guarantees crisp, grill-marked skin and juicy, smoky meat.

Where is it?

All over the place. In Los Angeles, Italian/American chef Mario Batali serves duckling al mattone with pear mustard and brussels sprouts at Osteria Mozza, while farm-to-table queen Alice Waters applies a brick to organic Riverdog Farm chicken, before serving with shoestring potatoes, spicy greens and black-olive sauce at her Cafe at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California.

Closer to home, Jamie Oliver's namesake restaurants across Australia apply the brick not to chicken, but to pretty much everything else, including a brined pork chop that's served with bagna cauda (anchovy paste), kohlrabi, apple and mint. "Jamie is so keen on the technique, he's had special cast iron 'bricks' made by blacksmiths in England for all the Jamie's Italians around the world," explains David Clarke, executive head chef of Jamie's Italian, now in Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth as well as Sydney. The bricks have a ribbed underside and a handle on top, because the cast iron gets almost as hot as the grill itself. "It cuts the cooking time down, because effectively the food is cooked from both sides, and you get a really beautiful crust," Clarke says.

Why do I care?

What else are you going to do with that brick lying around?

Can I do it at home?

Yes, it works equally well on the barbie, in the oven, and even in a fry-pan. Just remember that even wrapped in foil, that brick gets pretty hot, so handle with care.

SOURCING

Cafe at Chez Panisse, 1517 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, California, 0011 1510 548 5049

Osteria Mozza, 6602 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 0011 1323 297 0100

Jamie's Italian, 107 Pitt Street, Sydney 02 8240 9000 and various locations, jamieoliver.com

BRICK CHICK

4 poussin, around 200g each

100ml olive oil

2 garlic cloves, grated

2 tbsp rosemary, chopped

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried chilli flakes

sea salt and pepper

1 lemon, cut into wedges

1. Rinse and wipe dry the poussin. Using strong kitchen scissors, cut along one side of the backbone, then the other and remove the spine. Place each poussin on a bench skin-side up and push down with the heel of your hand to flatten the breastbone. Mix the oil, garlic, rosemary, oregano and chilli, and slather over each poussin. Season generously with sea salt and pepper.

2. Heat the barbecue to medium. Wrap four clean house bricks with kitchen foil. Place the poussin skin-side down on the grill, place a brick on top of each one, and grill for 10 minutes until golden and grill-marked. Turn the poussin, replace the brick and grill for a further five to 10 minutes until cooked through. Serve with extra rosemary, olive oil and lemon wedges.

Serves 4