lemons

Seriously, so yum.

Those grill marks. Oh, how I love them.

It was so weird not to have a Sprint Cup race to watch last weekend but those drivers’ totally deserve a mid summer break. But it just means I am really looking forward to this weekend’s race at “The Brickyard”!

And of course to celebrate the race at The Brickyard I just had to prepare Grilled Brick Chicken for this week’s edition of Sprint Cup Snacks. Those famous bricks on track get kissed all the time by the winners so you might just want to do the same after having this chicken. Of course you would want them to cool off… ouch!

I was a little nervous to cook a whole chicken on the grill as I was unsure of how it would turn out… would it undercook? overcook? would it stick to the grates? would it be difficult to work with the bricks? But all of my worries were tossed aside once the process began as it was sooo easy and so good. Plus all the downtime allowed me to enjoy reading some magazines. Win Win!

The chicken is so flavorful and juicy. The lemon and rosemary give the chicken rice flavor, as well as keeping it moist. But the real kicker is the skin and how well that grills right up. I don’t typically like to eat the skin of the chicken but since it has been grilled beautifully I couldn’t resist some. This grill marks just get ya! But the thing that really gets me is how juicy this chicken is. I couldn’t get over it.

Enjoy this weekend’s race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and make this chicken. It’s a great way to celebrate ‘The Brickyard’ and the return of summertime racing!

Grilled Brick Chicken

Makes 1 chicken

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken, about 4.5 pounds
• 1-2 lemons, thinly sliced
• fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• vegetable oil
• Kosher or sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 bricks, wrapped in foil

Process

1. Either buy a spatchcocked chicken or prepare the chicken yourself. To spatchcock a chicken, use sharp kitchen shears and cut along both sides of the back bones from the tail to the neck. Once removed, flip the chicken over the press firmly down on the breast until you flatten out the chicken by breaking the breast bone. Wash the chicken down at this point, as well as remove any excess bits of fat on the chicken, pat dry with a paper towel.
2. Preheat your grill on high while you prepare your chicken.
3. Create a pocket between the skin of the chicken and the meat by running your hand between them over the whole chicken. In that pocket, place the lemon slices and chopped rosemary.
4. Cover the whole chicken with vegetable oil and generously apply salt and pepper to the skin of the whole chicken.
5. Very carefully, rub the grates of your hot grill with vegetable oil soaked paper towels. Place the chicken breast side down on the grill, reduce the heat to medium-low, place the bricks on the chicken, and cover the grill. Cook on this side for 25-30 minutes. , Remove the bricks with tongs and check on the chicken to make sure you have nice grill marks on it prior to flipping, and reapplying the bricks. Cook for another 25-30 minutes, or until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees when inserted into the thickest part of the thigh.
6. Remove from grill and let rest for 5 minutes prior to cutting into it.

** If using a charcoal grill, at step 2- prepare the coals under the whole grill to heat the entire grill up. Then just before you coat the grates in step 5, move the majority of the coals to one side. Place the chicken on the side with less coals to cook it over indirect heat.

Adapted from Honestly Yum