Zuni Roast Chicken with Bread Salad
If you do an Internet search for “Zuni Roast Chicken”, you will come up with something approaching a quarter million hits, because, well, its just that good. Ruhlman adds perspective..
Zuni Roast Chicken with Bread Salad
Zuni Cafe roast chicken with bread salad
Total time: 1 hour, 10 minutes, plus 1 to 3 days standing time
Servings: 2 to 4
From 1 to 3 days before serving, season the chicken. Begin preparing the bread salad up to several hours before serving.
Roast chicken
1 (2 3/4 – to 3 1/2 -pound) chicken
4 tender sprigs fresh thyme, marjoram, rosemary, or sage, about 1/2 -inch long
About 2 1/4 teaspoons sea salt
About 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1. Remove and discard the lump of fat inside the chicken. Rinse the chicken and pat very dry inside and out. Be thorough – a wet chicken will spend too much time steaming before it begins to turn golden brown.
2. Approaching from the edge of the cavity, slide a finger under the skin of each of the breasts, making 2 little pockets. Now use the tip of your finger to gently loosen a pocket of skin on the outside of the thickest section of each thigh. Using your finger, shove an herb sprig into each of the 4 pockets.
3. Season the chicken liberally all over with salt and pepper, allowing about three-fourths teaspoon of sea salt per pound of chicken. Season the thick sections a little more heavily than the skinny ankles and wings. Sprinkle a little of the salt just inside the cavity, on the backbone, but otherwise don’t worry about seasoning the inside. Twist and tuck the wing tips behind the shoulders. Cover loosely and refrigerate for 1 to 3 days.
4. When ready to cook, heat the oven to 475 degrees. (Depending on the size, efficiency and accuracy of your oven and the size of your bird, you may need to adjust the heat to as high as 500 degrees or as low as 450 degrees during the course of roasting the chicken to get it to brown properly.)
4. Choose a shallow flameproof roasting pan or dish barely larger than the chicken, or use a 10-inch skillet with an all-metal handle. Heat up the pan on the stove over medium heat. Wipe the chicken dry and set it breast-side up in the pan. It should sizzle.
5. Place the chicken in the center of the oven and listen and watch for it to start sizzling and browning within 20 minutes. If it doesn’t, raise the temperature progressively until it does. The skin should blister, but if the chicken begins to char, or the fat is smoky, reduce the temperature by 25 degrees. After about 30 minutes, turn the bird over (drying the bird and preheating the pan should keep the skin from sticking). Roast for another 10 to 20 minutes, depending on its size, then flip back over to re-crisp the breast skin, another 5 to 10 minutes. Total oven time will be 45 minutes to 1 hour.
6. When the chicken is done, lift it from the roasting pan and set it on a plate. Carefully pour the clear fat from the roasting pan, leaving the lean drippings behind. Add about a tablespoon of water to the hot pan and swirl it.
7. Slash the stretched skin between the thighs and breasts of the chicken, then tilt the bird and plate over the roasting pan to drain the juices into the drippings.
8. Set the chicken in a warm spot (which may be your stove top) and leave it to rest while you finish the bread salad. The meat will become more tender and uniformly succulent as it cools.
9. Set a platter in the oven to warm for a minute or two.
10. Tilt the roasting pan and skim the last of the fat. Place over medium-low heat, add any juice that has collected under the chicken and bring to a simmer. Stir and scrape to soften any hard golden drippings. Taste – the juices should be extremely flavorful. The pan juices will be used to drizzle over the bread salad.
Bread salad and assembly
Generous 1/2 pound slightly stale open-crumbed, chewy, peasant-style bread (not sourdough)
6 to 8 tablespoons mild-tasting olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons Champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon dried currants
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar, or as needed
2 tablespoons pine nuts
2 to 3 garlic cloves, slivered
1/4 cup slivered scallions (about 4 scallions), including a little of the green part
2 tablespoons lightly salted chicken stock or lightly salted water
A few handfuls of arugula, frisée or red mustard greens, carefully washed, dried and torn
Spoonful of pan juices from the roast chicken
1. Heat the broiler. Cut the bread into a couple of large chunks. Carve off all of the bottom crust and most of the top and side crust (reserve the top and side crusts to use as croutons in salads or soups). Brush the bread all over with olive oil.
2. Broil the bread chunks very briefly to crisp and lightly color the surface. Turn the bread over and crisp the other side. Trim off any badly charred tips, then tear the chunks into a combination of irregular 2- to 3-inch wads, bite-sized bits and fat crumbs. You should get about 4 cups.
3. Combine about one-fourth cup (4 tablespoons) of the olive oil with the Champagne or white wine vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. In a wide salad bowl, toss about one-fourth cup of this tart vinaigrette with the torn bread; the bread will be unevenly dressed. Taste one of the more saturated pieces. If it is bland, add a little salt and pepper and taste again.
4. Place the currants in a small bowl and moisten with the red wine vinegar and 1 tablespoon of warm water. Set aside.
5. While the chicken is roasting, place the pine nuts in a small baking dish and place them in the hot oven for a minute or two, just to warm through. Add them to the bowl of bread.
6. Place a spoonful of the olive oil in a small skillet, add the garlic and scallions and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until softened. Don’t let them color. Scrape this mixture into the bread and fold to combine. Drain the plumped currants and fold in. Dribble the chicken stock or lightly salted water over the salad and fold again. Taste a few pieces of bread – a fairly saturated one and a dryish one. If either is bland, add salt, pepper and/or a few drops of red wine vinegar, then toss well. Since the basic character of bread salad depends on the bread you use, these adjustments can be essential.
7. Pile the seasoned bread in a 1-quart baking dish and tent with foil; set the salad bowl aside. Place the bread in the oven after you flip the chicken for the final time. Remove the bread when the chicken is done.
8. Tip the bread into the salad bowl. (It will be steamy-hot, a mixture of soft, moist wads, crispy-on-the-outside-but-moist-in-the-middle wads, and a few downright crispy ones.) Drizzle and toss with a spoonful of the pan juices. Add the greens, a drizzle of vinaigrette and fold well. Taste again.
9. Cut the chicken into pieces, spread the bread salad on the warm platter and nestle the chicken in the salad.
Compound Tomato Sauce (lacto-fermented ketchup)
Also see updated recipe here
Adapted from a recipe in The First African-American Cookbook from 1881 using a method described by Sally Fallon, this is a rich, thick fermented (rather than cooked) ketchup. I left out the high fructose corn syrup, in case you feel like calling the food police..
1 1/2 cups organic tomato paste (or make your own)
1/8 cup whey
1/4 cup pure maple syrup (optional)
1/8 cup fermented fish sauce OR 1 teaspoon anchovy paste (optional)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon allspice
Grind dry ingredients together in a spice grinder or mortar. Add to the rest of the ingredients in a non-reactive bowl and stir well to combine.
Add filtered water, if necessary, to achieve the thickness that you prefer.
Transfer ketchup to a jar with a tight-fitting lid and allow to sit at room temperature for 48-72 hours before transferring to refrigerator for long-term storage.
Thai Red Curry Cod with Mango Sticky Rice
Sauté Thai red curry paste (chilies, shallots, galangal, fish sauce, herbs and spices) in oil until fragrant, about 5 minutes.
Add coconut milk, fresh kaffir lime leaves, basil, scallions and red bell peppers and reduce to a simmer.
Add Alaskan cod filet and poach (turning once) until opaque, about 10-15 minutes depending on thickness.
Meanwhile, prepare jasmine rice with lemon grass and mango purée.
To serve, ladle curry onto plate or shallow bowl, add rice and place cod on top. Garnish with a dollop of coconut cream, lime leaves, basil and red pepper.
Rating ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Politics of the Plate”
As it was last year, the commercial salmon fishery south of the Canadian border will be closed in 2009. The cause is not over-fishing, but the failure of young salmon to survive long enough to leave their natal streams and enter the ocean.
“At the very least, there was something fishy about Alaska Governor (and Vice Presidential hopeful) Sarah Palin’s decision to speak out publicly against the state’s Clean Water Initiative late last month. There may also be something blatantly illegal about her advocacy for defeating the ballot initiative, which ultimately failed to pass when 57 percent of Alaskans voted against it.
A bit of background. The Clean Water Initiative (aka Ballot Measure 4) was put in place to restrict the amount of arsenic and other toxic pollutants that new, large-scale mines could dump into the state’s waterways. Its stated goal was to protect human health and safeguard salmon that use the rivers and streams to spawn. More specifically, it was aimed at a massive gold and copper operation called Pebble Mine located directly upstream of Bristol Bay, site of one of the world’s largest and most sustainable wild salmon fisheries, which produced 31 million pounds of king, sockeye, and chum salmon in 2007.
White Bean Soup w/Caramelized Leeks, Fennel & Venison Sausage
Soak dry white beans overnight or use drained canned white beans if that’s what you have.
Cook diced pork belly and venison sausage until the meat is brown and all the fat has rendered. Drain well, reserving 1 tablespoon of fat.
Add meat to simmering stock with cracked pepper, fresh thyme and marjoram.
Caramelize leeks and fennel in reserved fat, about 15 minutes.
Deglaze pan with white wine and add garlic, roasted red bell pepper and green chilies. Add to the stock and simmer 20 minutes. Skim away any accumulated grease.
Add beans and cooked orzo. Simmer 5 minutes.
Add 1 leaf softened gelatin.
Add a few squeezes of fresh lemon to brighten, and taste for salt.
Serve with smoked paprika and additional fresh herbs.
Rating ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ -
Moroccan Lamb with Grilled Tomatoes
Crush together coriander, cayenne, cumin, cloves, pepper, cinnamon, allspice and sea salt and add ginger, bruised garlic, lemons and olive oil. Marinate locally raised lamb loins in this mixture for at least 4 hours.
2 hours before dinner put together flat bread dough from flour, water, yeast, ghee, salt, yoghurt and Za’atar with sumac. Let it rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours. Roll or stretch by hand and bake in a lightly oiled pan at 400 degrees until brown on both sides (flip once), about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, remove the lamb from the marinade and cut into 1 inch thick medallions. Sauté in a little of the marinade with garlic over medium-high heat until cooked rare. Transfer to side to keep warm (it will continue to cook off-heat). Sauté fresh spinach and tomato wedges in same pan, season as you like.
To serve, alternate lamb medallions and tomato wedges on top of spinach, with flat bread, harissa and yoghurt on the side.
Rating ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ +
