Pollo al Ladrillo

This is my take on the ubiquitous Chicken Under a Brick preparation. In most Chicken Under a Brick recipes, the entire bird is butterflied and seared, then finished in a hot oven or grilled. It is a great way to ensure crispy skin and juicy meat. However, I have opted here to skip the part of removing the backbone and butterflying the bird and went straight for my favorite part of the chicken, the dark meat. In Uruguay, the chicken thigh is called muslo. If you want just the thigh, look for muslo corto, if you want the dark ¼ of the bird, it’s muslo con pata. For this dish, I purchased two chicken quarters – leg and thigh connected. You can use your favorite marinade for this dish. Some people choose a mixture of olive oil, lemon and rosemary, but my tastes are a bit spicier, so I chose chipotle peppers instead. I brought a stash of canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce from the U.S., but you can get the same spicey and smokey flavor (with a little less heat) by using Chipotle Tabasco sauce, available in Uruguay.

What you will need:
· A large heavy oven-safe skillet (preferably cast iron)
· 2 Bricks wrapped in heavy aluminum foil
· 2 dark meat chicken quarters
· 3 canned chipotle peppers with 1 tablespoon of the adobo sauce
· The juice of one lime
· A splash of soy sauce
· Salt and pepper

Method:

Cut any extra fat off the chicken pieces, but do leave most of the skin. Rub both sides of the chicken quarters with salt and pepper. Using a blender, liquefy the chipotle peppers, lime juice and soy sauce. Coat the chicken with the marinade, making sure to get some under the skin. For best results, let the chicken marinate for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 350° F / 180° C
Get your well-seasoned iron skillet nice and hot. Place the chicken in skin-side up to brown for about 2 minutes. Flip it over to skin-side down, loosely cover with foil and place the foil wrapped bricks on the chicken. Make sure to get good brick-to-chicken contact so the chicken is quite flattened in the pan. Let this sizzle away over medium-high heat for 5 minutes. Carefully (the pan, loaded with chicken and bricks is quite heavy) transfer the whole thing to the hot oven. Bake for 15 minutes, then turn the oven off and let it coast for 10 minutes more. When ready to serve, cut the legs from the thighs.

This is great with white rice and greens.

Buen provecho.