Deep in the redwoods of west county, almond and oak smoke curls around the field kitchen chef Lee Desrosiers has parked at the end of his gravel driveway. The converted pig smoker is an amalgamation of grates, pipes, bricks, meat hooks, cast iron, and steel welded into a Frankencooker built for one very specific purpose: making his signature Hell Chicken.
Named for pollo alla diavola, the Italian name for an aggressively seasoned, spatchcocked chicken cooked over screaming-high heat, the title is more joke than homage—though the chickens might disagree.
Above hellfire-hot embers, whole birds hang from curved metal hooks, roasting slowly in a process powered by little more than salt, smoke, heat, and time. Desrosiers has spent more than a decade perfecting it, first on the East Coast and now in Sonoma County, where he’s made his home. What began as a weekend lark on a Brooklyn sidewalk has become a mission for the 42-year-old chef.
As fat renders and smoke drifts into the trees, Desrosiers works mostly by instinct, checking the coals and watching for the moment the skin tightens against the meat. Timing matters, but feel matters more…