Chickens not cooked in a brick but still nicer than a Knight
Both chicken bricks and knighthoods were on my mind as cleaned out the fire this morning. The former have all but disappeared from our lives and the latter are as common as ASBO’s in Peckham and, seemingly, as easily earned. Had King Arthur been as free and easy with his dubbing, he would have needed a Round Table the size of Wembley Stadium for a sitdown roast chicken lunch with his ennobled, charitable chums. He would also have been well advised to have invested in a lorry load of chicken bricks. You might be sensing at this conjuncture that I have a lot more time for chicken bricks than I do for Knights. There are a couple of Knights amongst my acquaintances whose worthiness for a K would rest entirely on the significance of that letter being the last in a well known four letter word, at which they were masters owing to the amount of time they consecrated to honing their skills at that art. And charity, of course. The humble chicken brick, on the other hand, can produce delicious, life sustaining food in the simplest way whereas Knighthoods produce egos as inflated as the bubbling, crisp skin that covers the succulent breasts of a bird prepared in such a way. The rich and successful, who give so generously and painlessly, could be rewarded with a KCB (Kiss my Chicken Brick). My intention was to tell about the chicken brick but, as is so often the way, I got waylaid.
Food, Photography & France 
As a fully paid up and card carrying member of the Dyslexic Society, i read “The rich and successful, who give so generously and painlessly, could be rewarded by the KGB.” I completely understood and appreciated that but can only say that re-reading the sentence was a great disappointment.
Roger must try better next time
I’m happy for the KGB to reward them, Dick. I mean fair’s unfair, isn’t it?
Your chickens look great and definitely not cooked in a chicken brick. I did have a chicken brick for a while, but whilst the chicken cooked in it tasted good, they didn’t brown and the brick didn’t produce good juices for gravy, so I went back to the oven dish. I do, however, have a friend who absolutely loves his brick and very often cooks rabbits in it too.
I know the odd Right Honourable and the occasional Lord and Lady, but no Knights, so I can’t comment there 🙂
As we all know, once a Knight,,,dum, de, dum de da:)
Gorgeous chicken! Never heard of a chicken brick until i read your post. Interesting.
Some love it, some hate it – the chicken brick that is:)
I want the chicken that is NOT cooked in the brick. I didn’t know what you were talking about until I looked at the picture of the brick. We call that a clay roaster.
I’ve this wrong – I’m not advertising the chicken brick very well. am I:)
No.
You didn’t need to agree:)
I know no Knights, though many of our wealthy Charlestonians love to talk about ‘commoners.’
I’m proud to be common.
I don’t have a chicken brick. But then, we never eat chicken at home, unless MTM gets the urge to Southern fry some for me.
London is full of commons – Wandsworth Common, Wimbledon Common, Putney Common – it’s common as hell:)
Right. Clear on how a chicken can get inside a brick now. Bizarre, but there it is.
You don’t like knights very much, do you?
Not since my run in with the Black Knight by the lake, and the argument over whose sword it was. It might be that I just don’t like the dark and associate it knights:)
I’d no idea of what a chicken brick was. Thanks for the lesson, Roger, but I so rarely roast an entire chicken, that I doubt I’d ever purchase one. Besides, if you can roast chicken that looks as good as the ones in your photos, why bother with the brick?
Unbeatable logic, John. I haven’t used a chicken brick since the 70’s, when they were first launched in the UK. They’re excellent for fat free cooking but, in the end, who wants that?
I don’t know any Knights either, but a few Honorables and I understand that I am distantly related to an Italian Count (rather fancy being Countess Chica) but no matter…I laughed out loud at the KCB and am now reminiscing fondly about my old chicken brick and will now be tempted to buy one next weekend at the car boot sale (yes, I love other people’s rubbish!) as these are always on sale 🙂
They are such a 70’s thing. I might try and get hold of one for the summer when cold roast chicken is always useful:)
You’ve taught me something new and now I want a chicken brick!! Love the colors and clear crispiness of the chicken! Just beautiful 🙂
Go for it.This is the new chicken brick era:)
I’ll take the chicken brick over the knighthood. What the heck can you do with a knighthood nowadays?
My feelings exactly.
I gather knighthoods are mostly for handing back these days. Posthumously, even. Whereas a chicken brick can gather dust and still come out and do something useful. Lovely pic, of course.
Chicken brick V Knighthood – no contest:)
That has actually been quite an enlightening post. Did not know what an ASBO was: corrected! Thought I did not know what a chicken brick was until I looked at the photo. Oh my, I DO have one of them in the back of that top cupboard in the kitchen: corrected! British titles; well, nearly married an Honourable: tick to that . . . and my part of Europe is kind’of full of titles . . . we’ll leave that one right there 😀 !
Titles and Knighthoods are a very different thing. I have nothing against titles, but being dubbed a Knight for kicking a football, playing rock music or giving what you could well afford to charity is total bollocks:)
Regarding that we totally agree 🙂 ! And in 2013 even titles are, well . . . .
I think we’re in agreement:)
I feel your pain. Especially as the oven in the rented house has quit unexpectedly. Just as I (Linda) was about to put a souffle in. And the last few days I’ve been keen to bake bread – hopefully the sourdough will be good by the time the oven gets fixed.
What a pain. We cook with bottled gas here, and I’m forever forgetting to buy a spare gas bottle.
That must be so irritating. But lots of nice french bread, charcuterie, cheese and wine to sustain you on gasless evenings.
That does make up for it, you’re right:)
That’s weird – this was meant to be a response to your post about the chainsaw dying.
How did that happen?
I thought maybe chicken bricks were like buffalo chips! You know, those “bricks” made of dried buffalo dung for cooking over a fire? Had to laugh when I saw the photo of the real thing. 🙂
You’ve just introduced me to buffalo chips, which I thought were a kind of chipped potato snack. Certainly organic:)
Ha ha!
I like it when you get waylaid, leads to an interesting post. 🙂 I agree that they do seem to hand out knighthoods like candy.
It does devalue the idea.
Well, I had no earthly idea what a chicken brick was. Thanks for clearing that up. But, of course, I do know all about ASBOs. You’ll recall that, like Jenny, I can’t help but check in on the Daily Mail. 🙂
I won’t tell anyone, if you don’t:)
Your chicken looks wonderful….hm…and I’ve never heard of the chicken brick until now. Very fascinating.
Glad you liked the post and have discovered the chicken brick. It’s one of thos things that ends up in a kitchen cupboard, gathering dust:)
I guess I haven’t really lived as I haven’t owned a chicken brick and I don’t know any knights. What I do know is that your roasted chickens look very tasty with their golden crusty skin.
Life is good without chicken bricks and Knights – keep it that way:)