Faithful Reproductions: Zuni Chicken At Home
15 Mar
Roast chicken. Just perfect for Sunday dinner–simple, delicious, endlessly variable, experimental but almost always so solid, easily one of the best things you can make. I make it all the time–whole, in parts, split, whatever. But I’ve been looking for the perfect recipe for roasted chicken for over a year now. Last month, I ate the best roasted chicken I’ve ever had, at Zuni Cafe in San Francisco. Using a pared down version of the recipe from Smitten Kitchen, I made it at home along with the bread salad, and it was delicious (Paupered Chef has a version of the recipe as well). Crispy skin, tender meat, plenty of flavor and a delicious bread salad–kind of a stuffing–that was remarkably similar to what I had at Zuni, if a bit less striking in presentation. Read on for more on the method.
With the Zuni method, the bird is salted a day or even two before you make it. Slide some herbs (I used sage) under the skin and then pat really, really dry. I was using a Kosher bird, so I should have gone easier on the salt (Kosher birds are salted before you buy them). You preheat the pan at 475 degrees–the smallest oven-safe pan that will hold the bird is best, preferably a shallow one–then put the bird in, breast side up. You’ll hear a sizzle; it means you’re doing it right. Roast it, turning once, then again to re-crisp the breast for a few minutes, and you’re done. Use the drippings for the bread salad if you’re making it.
Speaking of roast chicken, Bittman just wrote about a method of roast chicken in the Sunday Magazine–it’s a bit more involved than this one (no more Minimalist, remember?), but it looks good, and it leaves you with chicken skin croutons, so that’s a definite plus.
Zuni Cafe’s Roasted Chicken [smitten kitchen]
Zuni Cafe’s Roasted Chicken [paupered chef]
