Simple, Rustic Chicken

Author Notes

This recipe was developed out of necessity. Once, in Tuscany, in a rented villa with an inadequately supplied kitchen (how DO those Italians cook with so few accoutrements), we had a chicken that needed to be cooked. We had a villa-supplied, small, cheap charcoal grill, the type you can buy at a gas station. The grill had no lid so we had to figure out how to grill a whole chicken. We butterflied it, or rather, we split the chicken down the middle and gilled it until it looked done. The only flavorings in the villa were olive oil, salt and pepper, but there was rosemary growing all around, in huge, silvery bushes. The chicken was delicious, memorable, enchanced, no doubt, by the fact that we had had to improvise, and that we were out of doors on a beautiful evening in Tuscany. But I've made this simple, rustic preparation may times since and it is always delicious. —Rosie DeQuattro