Pollo al Mottone

     Of all the cuisines I enjoy cooking the flavors of Tuscany are still my favorite.  There is something unpretentious and straight forward about that style of cooking that I admire.  This northern portion of Italy discovered fresh and local long before it became a buzz word in high end restaurants.
     So when I recently came across one of Steven Raichlen's grilling recipes for grilled chicken under a brick I immediately had to try it.  I already own two of his cookbooks, Beer Can Chicken and How to Grill.  This most recent recipe, however, appeared in the June/July 2012 edition of Fine Cooking magazine.
     As is typical for Tuscan cooking, the instructions are very easy to follow and the ingredients are few.  The premise is that applying pressure (an aluminum covered brick) on top of the chicken will keep the bone in breast moist and prevent it from drying out as white meat is prone to do.  Cooking over indirect heat also cooks evenly and helps to eliminate flair ups.  But before the chicken is cooked it is given a rub of fresh herbs that have been given a quick chop in a food processor.  So I went to my back porch herb pot and picked some  sage and rosemary and added it to some garlic cloves and peppercorns and a touch of kosher salt.  The recipe calls for a drizzle of olive oil on the skin of the chicken before rubbing on the herb mixture, but I added my own touch by gently lifting the skin from the meat and spreading half of the herbs under the skin with a spash of olive oil.  The result was a, moist and flavorful Tuscan chicken that had a golden brown and crisp skin and tender, juicy white meat.
     Here's what the author has to say about pollo al Mottone:  Although this technique is traditionally used with a spatch-cocked whole chicken, I like to use it for chicken breasts, which are notorious for drying out when exposed to the high heat of the grill.  The weight of the brick presses the meat into the grill for faster, more even cooking, excellent crisping, and gorgeous grill marks.  It also works as a cover for the meat, keeping it moist.
     And I purposely made enough to cut up later for a Tuscan chicken salad!