New Dinner Idea...Brick Chicken. Huh?

I've been on the hunt lately for ideas for simple, healthy recipes. Easy, right? Well, they also have to be easy for an almost-cross-country trip and easy RV cooking. That means, they also have to freeze or refrigerate well. So whether you're busy with work and want to prepare meals over the weekend, or traveling and preparing ahead of time, I offer Brick Chicken with Skillet Wrinkled Potatoes drizzled with Cilantro Pesto. I'm going to provide a link to the recipes, and pictures I took along with some tips, and finally the final review. Stay with me here... and start looking for a brick.

Timewise, make sure you begin with the chicken. It takes about a half hour on the grill. The recipe says to reduce the heat once you put the chicken on, but do yourself a favor and reduce it to medium beforehand. We can THISCLOSE to it being blackened brick chicken.  And the brick is to keep it in place, with the heat sealed under the baking pan and to keep flavor in.  I know this because I had to explain it to perplexed boyfriend (and grillmaster) quite a few times. He wanted to use a rock from my garden, but I pressed on until he dug up a brick from the barn. My justification was that it's called BRICK chicken, not GARDEN ROCK chicken.  I know, not a great justification but I'm not good under pressure.  Once the chicken is on, start on your potatoes. The recipe calls for new potatoes, scrubbed and put into a skillet with salt and enough water to cover the potatoes. Then you boil it down, until the potatoes are ashy and there is a little water left in the skillet.



The pesto recipe calls for "blanched" almonds. Not Blanche that I know, as in Devereaux, the saucy sexpot from my beloved Golden Girls. This one is much less fun, and it takes a whole lot more work to get their clothes off.  As in, you have to cover them in boiling water for NO more then a minute, then in cold water, and their skin "should" come right off. Not so much. If it had been the Devereaux variation, I could've soaked it in wine and the skins would've fallen right off. So my recommendation? BUY sliced, blanched almonds. They sell them.



Cilantro, Olive Oil...



I  added a clove of garlic, because it was slightly bland for my taste. But once some salt, pepper and garlic were added, it was perfect and a new version of pesto, which I liked. Once, everything is done, drizzle the potatoes with the pesto, and add some crusty bread. Yum. Daughter liked it a lot, boyfriend heartily approved, son declared he would NOT eat it because it was green (the pesto potatoes) and I enjoyed the rustic, earthly flavor and it's simplicity. Now, keep in mind that you need to buy a whole chicken (you need the skin as well) and remove the backbone. Um....no. So I opted for a split chicken, and then stood by and made faces while boyfriend took care of the backbone. I figure if he can harvest a deer, he automatically gets the dirty work in the kitchen.  Also, as I said, you need the skin so that you can add the fresh herbs/garlic/olive oil mix UNDER the skin. The pictures looked gross and it felt slightly dirty while doing it, so I just opted out of pics. But it does make a world of difference in sealing in the flavor, so push through.

 And there you have it.  A simple, herb filled, rustic dinner that can be prepared in advance, in a grill, over a fire or in a skillet. But always with a brick. I don't know why, it's just fun to say you cooked with a brick.  I served it with haricot verts, or for the less fancy, french green beans. But the kids don't run screaming when they hear "haricot verts", they just look perplexed. So I go fancy. They only protest is when they realize they've been snickered at the table, and that haricot verts is not some delish dessert or something fun, it just good old green beans with a stage name.

Recipes can be found by clicking on the hype links above, and the pesto recipe is in the recipe for the potatoes. This pesto is really versatile, so add it to your summer line up!