Butchering and Cooking Brick Chicken with Chef Liza Queen
As a chef and owner of Potlikker in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, I'm excited to share with you my experience butchering and cooking brick chicken. This lovely dish is actually quite simple to make, and the most important thing to keep in mind is that you need a very sharp knife to debone the bird.
To start, we need to find the bone that separates the two breasts. I like to use my fingers to locate it, as animals' bones will guide you when you're deboning them. Once I've found the breast bone and wish bone, I run my knife down both of them to release the breast from the body. The breast is a tender part of the chicken, and we want to reserve it for later use. Next, I need to get the leg bone out, which requires making an L-incision all the way down to the leg. By keeping my knife against the bone, I can cut the meat away from it.
Now that we have our legs open, we need to scrape away the meat and release the skin from the foot. This is the only really tricky part of the process, as it's easy to make a hole if you're not careful. However, if you keep your knife nice and snug against the bone, you should be able to get the skin off nicely without any splintering. After I've finished deboning the chicken, I need to give my hands a quick clean before cooking.
The key to achieving crispy skin on our brick chicken is to ensure that it's dry. We're going to use a large cast-iron bacon press to weigh down the chicken as we cook it, which will help us achieve that perfect crispiness. Don't be shy with the salt and pepper – these are two of my favorite seasonings, and I like to use them liberally when cooking.
Now, let's talk about the actual cooking process. We're going to start at a high heat, but we need to keep an eye on the chicken as it cooks to ensure that it doesn't burn. I like to check the color of the skin – when it's golden brown, we know it's done. If you don't get that initial crisp and golden-brown color in the beginning, it can be difficult to compensate for later.
To test if our chicken is cooked, I rely on its texture. A cooked chicken should feel firm and slightly springy to the touch. Once we've reached this point, we can reduce the heat and let the chicken finish cooking. Now, let's take a look at how crispy that skin is – it's like glass!
To finish off our brick chicken, we're going to make a quick pan sauce. This is where the magic happens, as we use the fond (the skin that stuck to the bottom of the pan) to create a rich and flavorful sauce. I like to use wine or water if I have stock on hand, but be careful not to add too much – it's better to err on the side of caution. The key is to keep your pan moving and not too high, as this will help prevent the sauce from separating.
Finally, we're going to hit our pan sauce with a little bit of lemon juice to give it a burst of citrus flavor. This technique works beautifully, and you can substitute many ingredients in with the exception of butter. Now that our brick chicken is cooked and our pan sauce is ready, all we need are some sides to complete the meal.
With these simple steps, you should be able to achieve delicious brick chicken at home. Remember to keep your knife sharp, use high heat when cooking, and don't be afraid to experiment with different seasonings and sauces – after all, that's where the magic happens!
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enOkay, I just called younerds back there andthen I realized I waswearing a microphone.My name is Liza Queen.I'm a chef/ownerat Potlikker inWilliamsburg, Brooklynand today we're gonnashow you how to butcherand cook brick Chicken.Brick chicken isa lovely thingbecause it's actuallyfairly simple to make.So you have to debonethe whole chicken andyou cook it the wholetime with the skinside down so it makes theskin like just beautiful,beautiful crispy and theflesh itself stays nice,and tender, and juicy.The most important thingfor deboning the birdis you do needa very sharp knife.There's a bone right herethat separates the twobreasts.Find it with yourfingers, andyou just wanna run yourknife right down it.Animals, their boneswill guide youwhen you'redeboning them.So, I'm just, I can feelthe breast bone andI've got my knife justright against it.Going down the wish boneand the breast bone.So once you get downpast the breast bone andthe wish bone,the breast is gonna comeoff nice and clean.This lovely little guyright here is the tender.You wanna take him off.Reserve and, you know,fry it or whatever.You need to getthe leg bone out.Again like anatomy willguide you, like youpretty much know wherethe bone is gonna be.So I mean my bestadvice to you andthis is always true forcooking is, is justdon't be freaked out.Just go for it if youscrew it up like you'regonna end up doing abetter job the next time.So you know where the legbone is you're gonna gostraight down, basicallymaking an L-incision allthe way down to the leg,andthen you're gonna wannastart to open them up.So basically I'm takingthe tip of my knife andI'm keeping itagainst the bone, andjust cutting the meataway from it.Once you've got them niceand opened up, like so,you're gonna slidethe tip of your knifeunderneath the top partof the thigh to release.Then you kindatake this andyou wanna scrapeaway the meat andthen you're gonnago to the bottom,right by his foot,right by the ankle here.Slide the tip of yourknife underneath again,and this is the onlyreally tricky part,because it's reallyeasy to make a hole.You just wanna keepit not too tight, butnice and snug against it.This comes offvery nicely.If you cut too high, it'sgonna splinter, but ifyou get it right throughthe foot, just comesright off, and that'sit for the butchering.You gotta give mea second to decontaminatethis area andthen I'm gonna cook it.Most chrome burnersespecially inNew York City, likethe BTUs are not awesome.What I would suggestis kinda do,and we do this anywayat the restaurant,like, we will pullour chickens out andget them up a little bitto room temperature.Room temperature meatcooks a lot, lot better.The other thing that'sgonna help is toget your pan at least tenminutes on low heat soit's nice andhot by the time youget around to it.You just need a panthat's gonna bigenough to fityour chicken, andI believe this is 10 or12 inch pan.This is a piece ofshit aluminum fry pan.Like, if you've gota nice thick one,use it but if you havecrappy equipment,just use it,like, you know.All right, it is veryimportant that thischicken is dry becausethat is how weget it crispy.Don't be shy withthe salt and pepper.This is one thing aboutrestaurant cooks versushome cooks is most ofyou home cooks wouldbe completely appalled bythe amount of butter andsalt we use.You wanna usean oil with a,a fairly highburning point.We use vegetableoil here.This is like totallyex-bartender shit, butI do a two anda half pound on oil.This is what we use toweigh down the chicken.It's just a large castiron bacon press.If you don't have one,please do not sweat it.The next choice would be,if you have a niceheavy copper orsauce, sauce pan,I'd totally use this.So then you're gonnatake this guy, andyou wanna slide him inskin side downThat's a good sound righthere, do you hear it?So you startit super high.Once the heat's down, youwant to turn it down justso the flame is no longerlicking up the side.Heat's been onmaybe a minute,at this fairly high heat.Check it.We're looking forthe, this color.So, see how's he'sgotten kinda nice andgolden brown?But it's quite raw sowe're gonna turnthis down now.If you don't get thatinitial crisp and goldenbrown in the beginning,and it's really difficultto try andcompensate at the end.So error towardshigher heat.Okay, this is good.I think the best wayto judge it is like,you know what a cookedchicken feels like, andso you're gonna know whatit feels like when it,when it's been cooked tothe point whereit's gonna be dry.So this guy is ready,is done.See, it's gotthis nice beautifulgolden brown color.I usually hit it realquick with this to kindof take some ofthe grease off sothat it doesn'tget smooshy.I got to show it to younow that he's just comeout of the pan at howcrispy the skin is.I'm gonna hold it upto my microphone.But I mean,this is like glass.I mean, you can seefrom the edge of it.I mean, that is crispy.And this side nevereven touched the pan.So I'm just gonna showyou how to make a realquick pan sauce, andwe will be done.Pour out your oil.This guy doesn't havea ton, but you can see atthe bottom where the skinhas stuck to the bottom.That is called the fond,andit has a tone of flavor.You could use wine,water.If you've got stockaround, you can use that.You don't want to add alot, because by the timewe mount it with butterand hit it with a littlelemon juice it's gonnamake quite a bit of thaw.So you don't wanna haveto wait forever forthe thing to reduce.These are calledbutter cubes.It's better to have themcut about this size andvery, very cold.They willemulsify better.Again, don't be afraid.So, the only thing aboutthis is you want tokeep your pan moving andnot too high,otherwise the sauceis gonna separate.Butsee how it's gettingthis nice creamy texture?That's how youknow you've achieveda nice emulsification.If it starts all ofa sudden to look very,very thin andyou see a layer of oil,then whatever, you'vebroken your sauce andyou don't want to eat it.Just start again,it takes two secondsas you've seen.So then I'm just gonnahit it with a little bitof lemon juice, andthis technique, you know,you can substitute a lotof these ingredients outwith the exceptionof the butter.It's, it's so nice cuzthis pan sauce is really,really good andit took nothing.And then you barely need,I mean,whatever, whateveryou want for sides.That's our guy.\n"
