What is 'chicken under a brick' and where does the technique come from?

Chicken under a brick — pollo al mattone in Italian — is a Tuscan cooking method in which a butterflied chicken is weighted down in a hot pan so the entire skin makes direct, sustained contact with the cooking surface. The technique originated in the farmhouses of Tuscany, where cooks would wrap a literal terracotta or clay rooftile in foil and press it onto the bird in a heavy skillet. The weight does two things: it prevents the skin from buckling or pulling away from the pan as it heats, and it accelerates fat rendering by maintaining uniform pressure across the surface. A bubbling layer of rendered chicken fat between the skin and the hot metal conducts heat more efficiently than air and produces the kind of crackling, papery-crisp skin that oven-roasting cannot replicate. The technique arrived in American fine-dining kitchens in the 1990s and has remained on menus like The Polo Bar's ever since, precisely because it looks impressive and the technique is genuinely superior for skin texture.

What can I use instead of bricks if I don't have any?

The weight just needs to be heavy enough to maintain firm, even pressure across the entire surface of the spatchcocked chicken — roughly 8 to 10 pounds distributed evenly. A 5-quart cast iron Dutch oven works well; add a couple of 28-oz cans of tomatoes inside the Dutch oven if it is not heavy enough on its own. A second 12-inch cast iron skillet filled halfway with water is another option. Avoid glass or ceramic vessels — they can crack when placed on a hot stovetop. Whatever you use, wrap the bottom in heavy-duty aluminum foil so it does not contaminate the chicken. The foil-wrapped brick is the traditional approach because clay or red brick conducts heat from the stovetop evenly downward, but the specific object matters far less than its weight and stability.

Why does The Polo Bar use rosemary and lemon specifically?

Rosemary and lemon is the canonical Tuscan herb-acid pairing for pollo al mattone — it is what gives the dish its identity separate from other crispy-skin chicken preparations. Rosemary has a high oil content and sharp, piney aroma that holds up through the extended high-heat cooking rather than burning off or turning acrid the way delicate herbs like basil or tarragon would. Lemon does two jobs: the zest in the rub perfumes the fat under the skin during cooking, and the juice squeezed at the table after cooking cuts through the richness of the rendered skin fat. The Polo Bar's menu specifically lists Sautéed Spinach with Lemon and Rosemary as the accompaniment, which means both elements appear in the bird and in the side — this is deliberate flavor threading, not coincidence. Thyme is a supporting herb in the rub: it rounds out the rosemary without competing with it.

How do I spatchcock a chicken if I've never done it before?

Place the chicken breast-side down on a cutting board. Use heavy kitchen shears or poultry shears — not a knife — and cut along both sides of the backbone from the tail to the neck, removing the backbone entirely. (Save it for stock.) Flip the chicken over, breast-side up. Place both palms flat on the breastbone and press down firmly and quickly — you will hear and feel it crack. The chicken should now lie completely flat. That is it. The whole process takes about three minutes once you have done it once. The main failure mode is using scissors that are not heavy enough — the backbone is cartilage and bone, and standard kitchen scissors will not cut through it cleanly. If your shears struggle, use a sharp chef's knife and cut close to the spine. Alternatively, ask your butcher to spatchcock it for you; most will do it for free if you buy the bird there.

How do I know when the skin-side is ready to flip?

Three cues: color, release, and sound. The skin should be deep golden-brown — not pale gold, not tan. It should release cleanly from the cast iron without sticking; if it is still sticking at 10 minutes, give it 2 more. And the sizzling sound should have changed from an aggressive crackling (water steaming off) to a lower, steadier fry (pure fat rendering). On a properly preheated cast iron pan the skin side takes 10 to 12 minutes over medium-high. If it is going faster than that, the heat is too high and the skin risks burning before the fat underneath has had time to render. If nothing is happening at 8 minutes, the pan was not hot enough when the bird went in — raise the heat slightly. Do not lift and check every 2 minutes: each time you lift the bird, you release the accumulated heat and slow the rendering.

Can I make this with chicken halves or thighs instead of a whole spatchcocked bird?

Yes. Two bone-in, skin-on half chickens (each about 1.5 to 2 lbs) are actually more practical for serving 2 people than a whole spatchcocked bird — each person gets their own piece, and it is easier to manage two halves in the pan. Use the same herb rub and the same technique. For skin-on, bone-in thighs (4 to 6 thighs, serving 4), reduce the stovetop time to 7 to 8 minutes skin-side down under weight, then oven-finish at 375°F for 15 to 18 minutes. For boneless thighs, the oven step is unnecessary — finish entirely on the stovetop, 7 to 8 minutes skin-side down under weight, flip and cook 4 to 5 more minutes without the weight until cooked through at 165°F.

Why dry-brine the chicken uncovered in the refrigerator?

Dry-brining — seasoning the bird and letting it rest uncovered in the refrigerator for 2 to 8 hours before cooking — does two things simultaneously. The salt draws moisture out of the skin and then reabsorbs into the meat, seasoning it deeply rather than just on the surface. At the same time, the dry air of the refrigerator evaporates the surface moisture from the skin. Less moisture on the skin means less steam when the cold bird hits the hot pan — and less steam means more searing and less softening. A chicken cooked directly from a wet brine or from a package will spend the first several minutes of cooking time driving off surface moisture; a dry-brined, uncovered overnight bird begins crisping almost immediately. At The Polo Bar, the kitchen process almost certainly includes some form of drying the skin before cooking — this is a standard professional technique for any restaurant serving crispy-skin chicken.

When did The Polo Bar open, and why is a reservation so hard to get?

The Polo Bar opened on January 9, 2015, in the lower level of Ralph Lauren's flagship store at 1 East 55th Street near Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. Ralph Lauren designed every detail of the room himself — dark mahogany paneling, leather banquettes, framed equestrian photographs, display cases of Polo sports equipment, and a ceiling painted to suggest an English country estate. The restaurant seats about 100 diners and has been fully booked for prime weekend evenings since its opening week. The difficulty getting a reservation is partly practical (small room, very high demand) and partly reputational: it is a celebrity dining room — Lauren reportedly eats there regularly — and that creates a self-reinforcing scarcity effect. In September 2025, Ralph Lauren announced the first London Polo Bar, set to open in 2028 at 1 Hanover Square in Mayfair. Press coverage led with the Polo Bar Burger and the five-layer coconut cake as the most famous dishes, but in late fall and winter, Chicken Under a Brick is consistently cited by reviewers as the dish that defines the season at the restaurant.

The Polo Bar Chicken Under a Brick (Pollo al Mattone with Lemon, Rosemary, and Sautéed Spinach)

Name: The Polo Bar Chicken Under a Brick (Pollo al Mattone with Lemon, Rosemary, and Sautéed Spinach)
Prep time: PT20Mactive (+ 2–8Hdry-brine)
Cook time: 38 min
Total time: 8 h 58 min
Yield: 2
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: Chicken and herb rub:; 1 whole chicken, 3.5 to 4 lbs, spatchcocked (or 2 bone-in, skin-on chicken halves); 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil; 4 garlic cloves, minced (about 2 tsp); 2 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped; 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves; Zest of 1 lemon (about 1 tsp packed); 1.5 tsp kosher salt; 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper; For cooking:; 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil; 2 foil-wrapped clay bricks OR a 5-qt cast iron Dutch oven as weight; Sautéed spinach:; 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil; 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced; 10 oz baby spinach (about 2 large bags); Juice of 1/2 lemon (about 1.5 tbsp); 0.5 tsp kosher salt; Freshly ground black pepper; Pinch of red pepper flakes; To finish and serve:; 1 lemon, cut into wedges; 2–3 fresh rosemary sprigs; 1–2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling

Prep time: 20 min active (+ 2–8 hr dry-brine) Cook time: 38 min Servings: 2

The Polo Bar is in the lower level of Ralph Lauren’s flagship store at 1 East 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan. The room books out two to four weeks in advance for prime dinner slots. It is dark mahogany paneling, framed equestrian photography, leather banquettes, and trophy cases filled with Polo gear — a dining room that Ralph Lauren designed personally, and that has remained one of New York’s most recognizable celebrity dining rooms since the day it opened in January 2015.

In fall and winter, the Chicken Under a Brick becomes the dish reviewers reach for when describing the season at The Polo Bar. It is a spatchcocked half chicken pressed flat in a cast iron skillet under weight until the skin is crackling and deep gold, finished in the oven, and served over sautéed baby spinach with lemon and rosemary. The check is approximately $36 per order. At home it costs about $12 to $14 per serving and requires two pieces of equipment beyond a standard kitchen: a 12-inch cast iron skillet and two bricks wrapped in foil.

The Technique: Why the Weight Changes Everything

Pollo al mattone — “chicken under a tile” in Italian — is a Tuscan farmhouse technique. The original version used a clay rooftile weighted onto a butterflied chicken cooking over a wood fire. The principle is unchanged in a cast iron pan on a gas range: constant, even downward pressure keeps the skin in full contact with the hot metal surface.

Without the weight, a butterflied chicken placed in a pan will buckle. The breast arches upward. The thighs lift at the edges. Wherever the skin leaves the pan surface, steam accumulates between the skin and the metal instead of heat — and steam produces soft, pale skin instead of the crackling result the technique is built around. The weight eliminates all of that by forcing the bird flat and keeping it flat for the entire skin-side-down phase.

The second thing the weight does: it accelerates fat rendering. Chicken skin contains a significant amount of subcutaneous fat. That fat must be rendered out completely — liquefied and either expelled into the pan or reabsorbed into the meat — before the skin crisps. Sustained pressure against a hot surface accelerates this process. By the time you transfer the skillet to the oven, the skin has already done most of the rendering that roasting alone would require 40 minutes to achieve.

The Dry-Brine: The Other Non-Negotiable Step

The technique gets the skin crispy once it hits the pan. The dry-brine determines how crispy it can get before that moment.

When you rub the chicken with the herb paste and leave it uncovered in the refrigerator, two things happen simultaneously. The salt draws moisture out of the surface of the skin through osmosis, creating a small amount of liquid on the skin surface. Within 30 to 45 minutes, the salt partially dissolves back into that liquid and then reabsorbs into the meat, distributing seasoning into the flesh rather than just coating the surface. At the same time, the dry air of the refrigerator evaporates the surface moisture on the skin — the surface you exposed to the cold air becomes progressively drier over the 2 to 8 hours the bird rests.

A chicken with dry skin hits the hot pan and begins crisping almost immediately. A chicken with wet skin spends the first several minutes of cooking time driving off surface moisture as steam before any browning begins. The physical state of the skin before the bird hits the pan matters enormously, and the uncovered refrigerator rest is the easiest way to achieve dry skin without specialized equipment.

Cost Comparison: Restaurant vs. Home

The Polo Bar charges approximately $36 for the Chicken Under a Brick at dinner, and a reservation takes weeks to secure.

	The Polo Bar	Homemade (2 servings)
Per order	~$36	—
Full batch (2 servings)	~$72	~$25–28
Per serving	~$36	~$12–14
Savings per serving	—	~$22–24

The dominant cost at home is the chicken itself: a quality 3.5 to 4 lb whole bird from a butcher costs $14 to $18. Commodity grocery-store chicken is cheaper but generally produces a less flavorful result here — the high-heat pan cooking amplifies the difference in quality more than a braise or slow roast would.

Three Mistakes Most Home Versions Make

1. Not drying the skin before cooking

This is the most common failure. A chicken cooked skin-side down in a hot pan with surface moisture on the skin will steam before it sears. The steam prevents the browning reaction (the Maillard reaction requires dry protein surfaces) and keeps the skin soft. The 2-to-8-hour uncovered refrigerator rest is the solution; if you are cooking today and skipped it, pat the skin vigorously dry with paper towels before the bird goes in the pan.

2. Using a pan that is not hot enough

Cast iron retains heat; thin stainless or non-stick pans do not. A 4-pound butterflied chicken is a very cold, very large piece of protein landing on a cooking surface — it drops the surface temperature of whatever pan it touches. Cast iron, preheated for 2 full minutes over medium-high, has enough stored energy to stay hot enough to sear the skin on contact. A thinner pan that starts at the right temperature will drop below the searing threshold the moment the bird goes in. Use cast iron. If cast iron is unavailable, a heavy enamel-lined pan is a reasonable backup; avoid thin stainless and non-stick entirely.

3. Lifting the weight before the skin is fully set

The skin needs the full 10 to 12 minutes of sustained pressure against the hot metal to develop the crust that can carry the bird through the oven phase without softening. Lifting the weight at 6 minutes to check, repositioning it, or lifting and pressing again repeatedly disrupts the even contact pattern and produces uneven browning — areas that had full contact will be deep gold; the edges that lifted, pale. Leave it completely alone for 10 minutes, then check once: the skin should release cleanly and be deep golden-brown.

The Sautéed Spinach with Lemon and Rosemary

The spinach side is genuinely part of the dish — not an afterthought. The Polo Bar’s menu description lists “Sautéed Spinach with Lemon & Rosemary” explicitly, meaning the rosemary appears in both the bird and the side. At table, the chicken juices running into the spinach as the bird rests on top tie the two together.

The technique is straightforward: garlic-infused oil, spinach in batches so it wilts rather than steams, seasoned aggressively with lemon juice and a small amount of red pepper flakes for contrast. The most common failure in home sautéed spinach is underseasoning — spinach has almost no natural flavor when cooked and requires more salt and acid than most cooks expect. Season at the end, taste, and add more lemon than feels comfortable.

Baby spinach works better here than flat-leaf or curly spinach: the leaves are already sized to eat without cutting, they wilt uniformly, and they hold up to the lemon juice without becoming slimy. Use two full 5-oz bags for two generous portions.

Tips and Variations

Get the herb rub under the skin. The most important placement for the herb rub is between the skin and the breast and thigh meat, not just on top of the skin. The fat rendering during cooking will carry the rosemary and garlic flavor directly into the meat; what sits on top of the skin burns off. Slide your fingers carefully under the skin to loosen it without tearing before rubbing.
Add lemon slices under the chicken. Before the bird goes in the pan, lay 3 or 4 thin lemon slices skin-side up under the chicken. They caramelize in the chicken fat as it renders and add a charred citrus note to the pan drippings. Squeeze them over the spinach when plating.
Deglaze the pan drippings. After transferring the chicken to the cutting board, set the cast iron skillet over medium heat, add a splash of white wine or chicken stock, and scrape up the browned bits (fond) with a wooden spoon. Drizzle this jus over the chicken when serving — it concentrates the rosemary and garlic flavors from the rub into a finishing sauce.
Use bone-in halves instead of a whole bird. Two bone-in, skin-on chicken halves (each about 1.5 to 2 lbs) are easier to manage than a whole spatchcocked bird and produce the same result. Same technique, same timing; each half gets its own portion of weight.
Finish with anchovy butter. Not traditional at The Polo Bar, but mashing one anchovy fillet into 2 tablespoons of softened butter and dotting it on the hot chicken as it rests adds a subtle savory depth without any fishiness — the anchovy melts completely and amplifies the salt and fat in the dish.

Storage

The cooked chicken keeps in the refrigerator for 3 days. The skin will not stay crispy — reheat skin-side down in a dry cast iron pan over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes to recover some crispness. The sautéed spinach keeps 2 days but is best made fresh; it takes about 5 minutes.

The Polo Bar Chicken Under a Brick (Pollo al Mattone with Lemon, Rosemary, and Sautéed Spinach)

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