zuni cafe’s roasted chicken + bread salad
There is only one home recipe for roasted chicken I have ever wanted to try and it is from the Zuni Cafe in San Francisco. Google “zuni cafe roasted chicken” and you’ll see — quickly — that this is something of a religion for people; they are mad for it. And yet, the technique, which hinges on three things, isn’t actually that crazed, and can be easily replicated at home. Win-win!
The first is the size of the bird, which should be small.”Don’t substitute a jumbo roaster,” they warn, “it will be too lean and won’t tolerate high heat, which is the second requirement of the method.” They reason that small chickens flourish at high heat, roasting quickly and evenly, and, with lots of skin per ounce of meat, are virtually engineered for succulence. This is like music to my ears, people.
The last requirement is salting the bird at least one day in advance. They insist that it improves flavor, keeps it moist, and makes it tender, and I am not one to argue with people who value this as I do. They don’t bother trussing the chicken — the idea is to get as much skin as possible to blister and color. And they don’t add any extra fat to it, trusting the skin to provide enough. Which it does, mmm….
Nevertheless, it might sound a little fussier than your usual roasted chicken but I can tell you this: It is one-hundred-thousand-percent worth it. I was as proud as a newlywed presenting her first crown roast to a holiday table pulling that evenly-bronzed, shiny gorgeous bird out of the oven Friday night. I was waiting for the heavens to open up and angels to begin singing hallelujah as never before has a more beautiful chicken emerged from an enclosed heating compartment, but then remembered, once again, that I was Jewish and instead happily settled for this:
“It’s like butta, Deb. Like butta.”
One year ago: Chicken and Dumplings (I still tear up a little when I remember how good this was.)
Two years ago: Boozy Baked French Toast
Bon Appetit’s Blog Envy: BonAppetit.com has put together a slideshow featuring a holiday-oriented recipe from nearly two dozen food blogs, including this here one. Everything looks stunning, and I love seeing all of my favorite people together in one place. Check it out!
Zuni Cafe’s Roasted Chicken
Adapted from the cookbook from the Zuni Cafe, San Francisco
The original recipe falls over three-plus pages in a small font and includes a fantastic amount of detail. It’s a great read. However, I prefer recipes that cut to the chase a bit more, so I have edited this down significantly, into the hopefully dish- and time-saving way I would approach it next time. It is typically served with the Bread Salad (recipe below) but I see no reason you can’t use any of your favorite side dishes instead. To me, the real genius is getting that bird so perfectly roasted all over with only a modicum of fuss.
Serves 2 to 4
One small chicken, 2 3/4 to 3 1/2-pounds
4 tender sprigs fresh thyme, marjoram, rosemary or sage, about 1/2 inch long
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 to 1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
A little water
Season the chicken: [1 to 3 days before serving; give a 3 1/4 to 3 1/2-pound chicken at least 2 days]
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.
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.
Season the chicken liberally all over with salt and pepper. 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 don’t otherwise worry about seasoning the inside. Twist and tuck the wing tips behind the shoulders. Cover loosely and refrigerate.
Prepare your oven and pan: [Day of, total time is 45 minutes to 1 hour]
Preheat the oven to 475°F. Choose a shallow flameproof roasting pan or dish barely larger than the chicken, or use a 10-inch skillet with an all-metal handle (we used a 12-inch cast iron frying pan for a 3 1/2 pound chicken). Preheat the pan over medium heat. Wipe the chicken dry and set it breast side up in the pan. It should sizzle.
Roast the chicken: Place the chicken in the pan in the center of the oven and listen and watch for it to start 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 smoking, reduce 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 size, then flip back over to recrisp the breast skin, another 5 to 10 minutes.
Rest the chicken: Remove the chicken from the oven and turn off the heat. Lift the chicken from the roasting pan and set 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.
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 juice into the drippings. You can let it rest while you finish your side dishes (or Bread Salad, below). The meat will become more tender and uniformly succulent as it cools.
Serve the chicken: Set a platter in the oven to warm for a minute or two.
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 will be extremely flavorful.
Cut the chicken into pieces, spread on the warm platter (on top of the Bread Salad, if using).
Capitalize on leftovers: Strain and save the drippings you don’t use, they are delicious tossed with spätzle or egg noodles, or stirred into beans or risotto. You can also use them, plus leftover scraps of roast chicken, for a chicken salad.
Zuni Cafe Bread Salad
Adapted from the Zuni Cafe, San Francisco
I can’t describe it any better than they do: “Sort of a scrappy extramural stuffing, it is a warm mix of crispy, tender, and chewy chunks of bread, a little slivered garlic and scallion, a scatter of currants and pine nuts, and a handful of greens, all moistened with vinaigrette and chicken drippings.”
As I noted above, I’ve trimmed down the steps for this recipe significantly so it doesn’t resemble the original recipe a whole lot. But it remains equally delicious.
Generous 8 ounces 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 cracked black pepper
1 tablespoon dried currants plumped in 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar and 1 tablespoon warm water for ten minutes or so
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 and dried
Preheat the broiler. Carve off all of the bottom and most of the top and side crusts from your bread (you can reserve these to use as croutons for soup or another salad). Tear bread into irregular 2- to 3-inch chunks, wads, bite-sized bits and fat crumbs. You should get about 4 cups.
Toss them with just a tablespoon or two of olive oil, lightly coating them, and broil them very briefly, just to lightly color the edges. If you’d like to toast the pine nuts (recommended) you can put them on your broiler tray as well, but watch them very carefully — they cook quickly!
Combine about 1/4 cup of the olive oil with the Champagne or white wine vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. Toss about 1/4 cup of this tart vinaigrette with the torn bread in a wide salad bowl; the bread will be unevenly dressed. Taste one of the more saturated pieces. If it is bland, add a little salt and pepper and toss again.
Heat 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 into the bread and fold to combine. Drain the plumped currants and fold them in, along with the pine nuts, if they were not already mixed with the bread scraps from the broiling step. 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 it is bland, add salt, pepper, and/or a few drops of vinegar, then toss well.
If you’re going to serve the salad under the roast chicken (recipe above), you can pile the bread salad on the serving dish you want to use and tent it with foil. If you want to serve it separately, do the same, but in a 1-quart shallow baking dish. Hang onto the bowl you mixed it in — you’ll use it again.
Place the salad in the oven after you flip the chicken the final time, for about 5 to 10 minutes.
Tip the bread salad back 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.
I hope the oven is preheated a little more than 47 degrees! ;) Sounds amazing – I have a chicken in the freezer that is looking good for this. Is one day enough to thaw a 3 pound bird? The second day could be the prep day, if there is any more thawing to do.
This is my husband’s go-to roast chicken recipe, and my favorite roast chicken to eat. It works out well that way :) Great to see someone else appreciating Judy Rogers’ recipe!!
Temperature is fixed now.
Best roast chicken ever – my roommate who was in the ‘ew it’s dry’ camp along with you ate almost an entire chicken after I told her she should just tryyyy it. I haven’t tried the bread salad yet, but it’s on my list :)
I was just planning on making a panzanella salad, and I think yours would be great with some of the brussels sprouts I just picked up!
I can confirm the one-hundred-thousand percent worth it part. Hands down, best roast chicken ever. I haven’t tried the bread salad yet, and your photos have convinced me to do it.
OMG – I’ve wanted to make this so often, but the 3 pages of dense instructions has always sacred me – now I think I’ll finally get to it!
This is definitely the way to do chicken – and even Turkey! We cooked our Thanksgiving turkey using the Zuni method (minus flipping the bird in the pan, I left the breast side up) and it was one of the best birds we’ve made. I like to also shove pats of butter, lemon slices, and sage leaves underneath the skin (Julia Child’s method). The results are always fantastic.
Phoo-D
Any thoughts on whether this would work with a kosher chicken – kosher chickens are already salted, so I am always nervous to salt more… that said, can’t hurt to try
Deb, your post made me laugh out loud! I have always been a little afraid to roast a chicken, but being a good Jewish girl I knew I would eventually have to face my fate…with this recipe as my guide, I’m going to try it out for my next Shabbat dinner with the fam :) Thanks so much! PS. I adore your site.
This looks gorgeous.
I read that recipe from Café Zuni cookbook a few years ago. Yeah, it was long, so I didn’t make it. I admire you for doing all this process!
There’s a terrific recipe for whole chicken with tarragon and chardonnay by Wolfgang Puck, my favorite chef, (who used to be married to a nice Jewfish girl for many years and together they build the WP food empire). I blogged about it, here: http://www.familyfriendlyfood.com/2008/07/whole-roasted-chicken-with-chardonnay.html
The recipe is from his book “Wolfgang Puck makes it easy” which has many great recipes. I use this cookbook a lot.
A classic. I’ve always been intimidated but if it really is all that…
I like your streamlining of the recipe, which I made once in all its exhaustive glory, and then settled myself for just the chicken. But I will try your compressed version! By the way, the LA Times turkey translation of this recipe:
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-turkey19-2008nov19,0,4842837.story
is, hands-down, the best turkey I’ve ever made.
THANKS, DEB!
I knew you didn’t have a whole roast bird recipe on here after searching for one before Thanksgiving! It’s ok I still found some good sides and dessert. Thanks for the Bon Appetit link, lots of good looking dishes on there.
I am seriously going to try this – I recently had some that was store-bought and it was awful! I guess I’m just going to have have to make it myself, using your recipe of course!
We have fed this to everyone we know. It is divine.
Don’t you just love yourself when the roasted chicken comes out wonderful!
ooh deb! until now, i just thought my oven was the box that i pulled cakes and cupcakes out of! do you mean to tell me, that if i put a whole, raw chicken in my oven that it’ll come out looking like this?! amazing!
and bread salad? um… YES!
I am one of the crazy people is who obsessed with the chicken for two at Zuni! I get it almost every time I go there and I cannot get enough of it. My old roommate, who made recipes from the cookbook at least twice a week, used to make the chicken but i could never bring myself to go through the trouble, especially since Zuni is within walking distance from my house! But this chicken is really worth the effort. And the bread salad is to die for. I am not religious but i think that I may start bowing down at the altar of Chicken for Two. Probably in my top five meals/dishes of all time. And if anyone can get to San Francisco it is worth going to Zuni and ordering it. The menu says it takes 50 minutes but it rarely takes that long.
Yum. Nigella has a good Brandied chicken too.
I have cooked a number of birds sort of like this: simple, with high heat a la Thomas Keller, and I’m completely sold. I even emailed a bunch of people after I did it the first time to tell them this method would change their lives! Now I’ll try the salting and waiting, I’m sure with even better effects, although I never thought Keller’s method could be topped. Glad I have a counterpart in NYC who will likely turn into the gal digging in the case for the wee chicken at the bottom no one else wants!
I’ve been toying with the idea of making a whole roast chicken for a while now, but always feel that it’s going to be too much food for 2 people. The idea of using a smaller bird is very appealing.
like buttah. you make me laugh. and now my stomach is roaring, too.
Ooh, I’ll have to try this one. Until then, I swear by Thomas Bouchon’s My Favorite Simple Roast Chicken recipe I found on epicurious.com. Perfect almost every time & with little effort.
Wow, I’ll have to try this chicken. Seems like everyone that commented thinks it’s the best. I’ve seen this cookbook and everything in it looks fabulous.
I made Cornish hens (for Thanksgiving! Yes, i did!) – it was the most perfect raosted bird I ever had! It takes only 1 hour to cook. Perfection! And so easy to make. Yum yum yum.
This recipe is a regular in our rotating list of most favorite things to make. Ever. Period. You are doing yourself a disservice if you don’t try this recipe. You won’t be disappointed!
it’s a good thing I’ll be going there this weekend! ;)
I’m a little skeptical. A few years ago I followed the turkey recipe in Gourmet magazine calling for fast cooking using high heat, around 450-500. The recipe testers raved about how evenly cooked and juicy it was, so I risked it for Thanksgiving. How the bird is supposed to get evenly cooked under high heat is still a mystery to me. The laws of thermodynamics still apply in the kitchen. Anyway, I ended up with dry overcooked turkey on the outside and raw turkey on the inside. (Yes, I made sure the turkey was completely thawed.) Maybe the Zuni recipe works because it’s a smaller bird? After some major damage control we had food to eat but I’ll never try that method again.
I love roast chicken and can get the best ones from our grocery stores here (in Australia). They also have whats called “chicken shops”, kinda like a fast food outlet for roasted chicken and french fries (called “chips”) mmmm, getting hungry now!
The magical roast chicken! I have much love for it. I really like your spice combination in your recipe. I am anxious to try it!
My favorite roast chicken in New York is Pio Pio, generally the one closest to home but they’re all excellent and reasonably priced. I think I would be a lot more motivated to roast chicken if they weren’t so deliciously close by.
Looks great! I like to butterfly my chicken before roasting it; it’s faster and the white and dark meat are done at the same time. I wonder how it would work following this cooking procedure?
Do you have a suggestion for flipping the bird (hahaha) without burning yourself? I am a total klutz and that part of the recipe kind of freaks me out.
We make this Zuni chicken all the time. Usually without the bread salad, though, which is delicious but very rich. Yum. Everyone should make this recipe.
Probably your previous chicken tasted like sawdust because it was not very organic? I think the quality of the chicken is essential to its texture – I have bought roasted chicken from shops before and even Dean and Deluca’s rotisserie chicken taste very sawdusty to me.
I’m really looking forward to making this soon. The Zuni technique produced an AMAZING Thanksgiving turkey this year, actually the very first one I’ve ever liked. And flipping a chicken should be a piece of cake after handling a 10-pound turkey.
Hello! I lurk everyday, and today had to comment. This is a FABULOUS recipe, one I have used many times.Guests swoon.
I will give you one for a simple roast chicken you can have for dinner any night in a little over an hour: Preheat oven to 475. Wash, dry, stuff bird with garlic cloves/thyme/rosemary whatever suits you. Salt and pepper. Heat 2-3 T butter, 2-3T olive oil in ovenproof skillet. Brown bird on all sides (not really brown, just golden) Turn on side, place in oven 15 minutes. Take out, turn on other side, 15 minutes.(I use 2 wooden spoons in each end to lift and turn the bird) Lower oven to 375, legs up, legs facing back of oven 30 minutes. Slice immediately. You can make “gravy” if you wish with wine, pan drippings. Depending on the herbs you use – fresh rosemary vs thyme you have wonderful variations. Enjoy!
This is a no fail chicken recipe, moist everytime. I believe I remember it from Fine Cooking several years ago, or perhaps Cooks Illustrated. It is a NO FAIL recipe. I do not take credit!
Thanks for your blog. I check in everyday and am making one of your soups tonight!
This sounds delicious. I’ll have to try it. Another good one is on Chocolate and Zucchini– “Muriel’s chicken.” You cook it slowly in a clay pot. I tried it a couple of weeks ago and it’s super moist and good.
The bread salad sounds divine. I wonder if dried cranberries could substitute for the currants (not so much a fan). I have a great go-to roasted chicken recipe – honestly, I think the secret is in the size of the bird (small). The bigger the bird, the more difficult it is to get everything cooked through at the same time. I love the serving suggestion presented in the first photo. So appealing….
Sounds great. I’m a little scared of roasting a whole chicken, I’m more of a “chicken parts” gal.
I’m a big fan of Pio Pio rotisserie chicken and I have been trying to recreate the infamous “green sauce”
any thoughts.
Darn it, Deb! I JUST made Ina’s roast chicken for dinner tonight — came out wonderfully, by the way — and now I’m going to have to try the Zuni one. I’ve seen it floating around the interwebs before, and I do still find the salting step a trifle intimidating — but it seems it must be tried! And I DID just buy two new roasting pans.
It always amazes me how simple roast chicken really is once you break it down step by step. I haven’t made a roast chicken before, and am trying to decide between this recipe, and the “engagement” chicken.
There’s an incredible simple way to juicy chicken: Wrap the bird in two layers of cheesecloth, baste with butter and/or olive oil. Roast, basting frequently. Dried out meat will be a thing of the past.
I heeded the advice of both Julia Child and Irma Rombauer..they both said to buy small chickens and start them in a hot oven. I clean them well..scraping out the remnants of the guts that get stuck in between the ribs. I rub the outside with 2 tsp of olive oil, sprinkle with with fine herbs, lightly crush the cloves of half a bulb of garlic and throw them in the cavity. No salt..no pepper. Roast at high till it sizzles, then reduce the heat to 325 to finish. No flipping, no foil, no broth in the pan..just dry roast it. It’s moist and succulent every time. I’ve never had to spend 2-3 days turning sommersalts for good roast chicken. Speaking of salt..most meat and poulty, just like us, have plenty of natural salt in their tissues..you shouldn’t need extra..it will make meat render juice..not keep it. So there!
I love this recipe, and I agree 100% that the original version needlessly– and confusingly– reads like War & Peace. Thank you so much for condensing it!
Two words mean perfect chicken: meat thermometer.
Well, not really. ;) I completely ignore the USDA, who says that a whole chicken must register 180°F at the thigh, and instead cook then chicken breast side down until the temperature reaches 145° or so, then flip it over and wait until it gets to 160°. The carryover from the oven brings it to around 165°, which is high enough for me — and the chicken is always perfect, never over- or undercooked.
I also admit I shove the better part of a stick of butter underneath the skin and in the cavity with my aromatics (rosemary, both under skin and in the cavity, and lemon and onion in the cavity). Most of it melts and runs off during cooking, but it imparts a lovely flavor throughout the meat. I let the butter re-solidify in the the fridge and use it when dealing with the best part of roasting a chicken — LEFTOVERS. It makes a lovely flavored pie crust for chicken pot pie or heavenly Southern style dumplings. Waste not, want not!
I’m looking forward to giving this a try!
Dang it. Now I am hungry…again!
Jeni – what a GREAT suggestion with regards to re-solidifying the butter and using it in a crust. I NEVER would have thought about that. Awesome.
This looks great! I’ll definitely try both recipes, probably this Sunday.
BTW, another simple way to make moist roast chicken is to use a Römertopf or similar type of clay cooker. I usually put the seasoned bird on a bed of chopped onions and tuck some other root vegetables around it. Adding a little wine or chicken broth to the pot before cooking adds even more moisture and flavor. Cook at 450°F for 90 minutes (start with a cold oven or you’ll break your pot). For crisp skin, remove the veggies and juices after cooking, return the chicken to the pot and stick it back in the oven for another 15 minutes with the lid off. (Or just take the skin off before serving and give it to your dog.)
Fabulous. I appreciate anything that keeps me from eating sawdust.
I’ve never commented on your blog before, but I love your site. So many good ideas and recipes.
So I have a question. This chicken sounds amazing, but is there any way at all I can use a 4.5 pound chicken for this? I have one in the freezer, and I really want to make this for Christmas but I’d rather not ruin the recipe. Thoughts?
Yes, Thank You for condensing the recipe! I’ve been hearing about this forever and really want to try this — I’ve never roasted a chicken before. I roasted my first turkey 2 years ago — followed a co-worker’s advice to slip bacon underneath the skin and roast the bird upside down. It worked! The most moist, flavorful bird I’ve had to date…maybe not the prettiest, but who cares!
I’m off to try this chicken asap.
Hi K — The idea of the recipe is to use a small chicken. While I am sure it will not be a disaster if you use a big one, it will likely not be as moist and evenly bronzed at that high temperature. That said, I am sure that the other two parts of the technique — high temp and salting a couple days in advance — could improve any-sized bird. But, the real deliciousness is in the tiny ones.
this is by far the best chicken in town. It’s delicious and moist. And, everyone has a satisfied smile on their faces after eating the chicken at Zuni.
Once – a long time ago – my fellow boy scouts and myself did a chicken over a fire. The only available seasoning was spearmint and peppermint (picked fresh). We stuffed the cfavity liberally with this and roasted in a large metal pail as an oven. Your use of herbs here reminded me of that and I think I’ll try it. Thanks for the recipe/reminder.
Stunning pictures! I’m looking forward to trying this recipe now that the temps have officially dropped :)
huh-ma-na
huh-ma-na
that LOOks amazing!
I love this recipe (and the whole Zuni Cafe Cookbook, for that matter)!!!!
Thanks for posting and spreading the word:)
I’ve always pretty disappointed in Zuni Cafe, considering its notoriety, but the chicken is pretty great. Just make sure you don’t go hungry, because you’ll be waiting for an hour if you order the bird.
For years my go-to roast chicken has been Marcella Hazan’s Chicken With 2 Lemons. But this one is going to get a try immediately – I’ve been itching to try the salting method since everyone wrote about it around Thanksgiving.
You have beautiful pictures. Would you mind sharing what camera you use?
~ JK
Thank you. We use a Canon D40 these days. We’ve got all of our photo equipment and more information about how we approach photos in this post.
Dude, I think maybe I love your blog so much that it’s gotten to the point that I want to cook what you’re cooking BEFORE you even post it! I literally was JUST THINKING that I want to try a roasted chicken, but I didn’t even want to start the process before coming here to see if you’d written about it before . . . and there you are, on the very day I was coming her to look it up! You’re my hero! Thank you! We’re definitely having this for dinner one night next week.
BTW, I believe we might be neighbors IRL (UWS?) . . .
I was at Zuni this summer and everyone around me was eating this. It smelled divine. My fish was fine, but it was no roast chicken.
Roasting the chicken. A technique that is soo controversial. After reading this, I have to give a nod to Julia Child’s chicken roasting on chicken – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ohiUbQyDhk
Of course you will probably never prepare chicken this way, but it is excellent fun to watch and learn about the different chicken sizes/ages and their uses.
This looks yummy :) Definitely an impressive dish…
Is it a roast chicken or a roasted chicken? Roasted sounds more grammatically correct!
I’ve made roast chicken a few times, and it’s never knocked my socks off. I keep making it just because it’s fun, plus I love using the leftovers in chicken salad. I’m looking forward to trying this recipe to see if it’s worth making just for the chicken!
Susan — Roasted chicken. Actually meant to change that and totally forgot. I am extra-flaky this week.
I’m totally making this on Sunday…i had already planned on roast chicken but hadn’t decided on the seasonings. My tummy’s rumbling already!
This was delicious, Debbie! The pictures are making me relive it!
I think the technique is similarto when you place a chicken or turkey into a brine (salt-water) mixtue for a day before you roast it. This is certainly one I will try soon for Xmas.
Hi Deb! I looooove your blog! Im getting married soon and Im taking notes of all your delicious recipes so I can feed us very well! In fact, Im collecting all of my favorite recipes (from the web, cookbooks, friends, etc.) in a little book which I am making on tastebook.com. Its a personal book, Im only making one copy for myself and my new home, and I was wondering if I could use some of your photos for the recipes. I think theyre the reason I get so inspired when I visit your blog! Would that be ok? Please let me know! Thanks a million! God bless you!
I’m with Audax — I always brine chickens (just a couple hours) and dry them thoroughly before roasting. Have never had a dry chicken. The salt in the brine doesn’t render the poultry salty; rather, it changes the structure of the proteins to permit more moisture to be retained. As my go-to, Cooks Illustrated says:
“Table salt is made up of two ions, sodium and chloride, that are oppositely charged. Proteins, such as those in meat, are large molecules that contain a mosaic of charges, negative and positive. When proteins are placed in a solution containing salt, they readjust their shape to accommodate the opposing charges. This rearrangement of the protein molecules compromises the structural integrity of the meat, reducing its overall toughness. It also creates gaps that fill up with water. The added salt makes the water less likely to evaporate during cooking, and the result is meat that is both juicy and tender.”
Also per Cooks, I recommend turning the bird using wads of paper towel to protect your hands. Hold one wad in each hand, and grab the bird by the neck & tail ends to flip. Works every time!
that chicken looks so good i cant wait to try to make it sometime!
I love roasted chicken, as a rule. And this looks like something I could eat every day for the rest of my life. thank you for the recipe and the mouthwatering pics!
This chicken looks delicious, but the link to last year’s chicken and dumplings made me laugh out loud. I love your recipes and your style! Keep posting. I’m an addict to the blog. :)
The food photography on this site is sick…sick I tell ya!
I must have made this chicken 75 times (and I live 3 blocks from Zuni shhhh) and I’ve never been dissapointed! Best ever.
I really have to try this chicken. I’m always disappointed with many recipes. Thanks for sharing.
this is the ONLY thing I make from Zuni Cafe cookbook.
It is everyone’s favorite recipe of all time!
But the rest of the book is a waste for me!
Stacey SNacks
PS
I have been making INa Garten’s roasted chicken every Friday night forever.
It is never dry and always perfect.
Start w/ GOOD chicken. Empire Kosher or Bell & Evans. you know!
425 oven. Stuff bird w/ lemon and herbs (rosemary and thyme).
Kosher salt and olive oil on the skin. Place on a bed of 2 chopped onions.
Roast for 75 minutes. Never fails!
Stacey Snacks
Several years ago Cooks Illustrated did an article on brining your turkey, then taking the back-bone out (yes it’s a job and some swearing is involved!) flattening the turkey, letting it air-dry for about 1 hour, then cooking at high temp (475F). I usually do about a 10 lb turkey and it usually takes about 2 hours (give or take 30 minutes). Always really moist and flavorfull and better than waiting hours for a dry, icky turkey. I do the same thing with chicken (less time, naturally). I swear by brining!!
I’ve always wanted to try this – you’ve convinced me to. You should be proud, it looks so golden and gorgeous.
Back on the “what are you afraid to cook” post, I was one of the people who listed “a whole chicken” at the top of my list. Of course, as soon as I listed it, I realized that it couldn’t stay there for long, so I pulled out my roasting pan and started looking for recipes I could trust. I finally tried Ina Garten’s recipe (mostly after you raved about her recipes in numerous posts) and it was amazing! Very flavorful, moist — and easy. I will definitely try this recipe next! Thanks for being the push I needed to tackle the top of my list!
…it was about a week ago and I was “perusing” my favorite recipe sites searching for the best ways to roast a chicken. on behalf of myself a week ago, I thank you. and on behalf of myself in a few days from now… yum.
Though I’ve not read all the comments before me — this sounds just like a salad Orangette had concocted that I made. SO delicious! http://orangette.blogspot.com/2006/09/late-september-sung-in-key-of-salad.html I see now that it’s indeed from the Zuni book. I can’t wait to make it as you have here. Presentation is stunning! Love it.
This is my favorite chicken. I go to Zuni’s just for this chicken. Her book is incredible, I love the detail, incredibly educational. I never attempted this recipe due to the simple fact that their’s will always be better, due to their awesome wood burning oven. But seeing the picture of your bird, I have new hope. I think I want to serve this for Chanukah dinner.
I made this a couple of days ago and it was delicious! I will never go back. This is my new standard for roasted chicken.
Did anyone else make a complete mess of their kitchen making this? There is chicken fat all over my oven now, and the fat kept popping up against the heating coils and making smoke that was burning my eyes. The chicken was delicious, exactly as described, but not worth it. I had to eat the chicken with my eyes all irritated from the fat and smoke combo. Now I dread going into the kitchen to do clean up.
just made this roast chicken last night and it was the BEST ever!!!
mck
My chicken is brining itself as we speak and will be cooked tonight. Can’t wait.
To those who say this is comparable to wet brining, (which I’ve long been a fan of), I read on another blog that the difference is the dry salt rub will extract the chicken juices and allow it to brine in it’s own liquid….makes sense to me.
I tried another Zuni recipe last night that I highly recommend….the Mock Porchetta. Very inexpensive cut of pork and it comes out delish!
After trying these two recipes, I’m gonna buy the book, even though the last thing I need is another cookbook!
Yeah, everyone can chime in all they want with their fave roast chickens, but this is just a great recipe. The entire family agreed, hands-down awesomeness! Natch I had to monkey a wee bit myself. Currants? I’ve got raisins. Raisins? Where’d they go? I did find the dried cranberries, (Deb, don’t flinch) and dried apricots, and substituted. The family dug the little sweet nuggets interspersed. I used a bag of Trader Joe spring salad mix. I love me my arugula, but it’s a harder sell with the family. Even my pine nut-hating daughter loved the whole package!
This was absolutely delicious. I set the smoke detector off 6 times but it was delicious!
I use this “dry brining” recipe for every kind of meat now– pork, chicken, beef, lamb. A few hours’ or an overnight rub with salt and a little dried rosemary from Penzey’s? Yeah, magic. Everyone thinks I’m fabulous, but I’m just a Judy Rodgers devotee.
I just made this chicken! Turned out amazing!!! but filled my house with smoke…a lot of smoke. Is there any way to avoid the smoking? I turned down the oven to 450 like Judy suggests and I didn’t see any chicken burning…not sure where the smoke was coming from.
Long-time lurker, first-time commenter. Usually everything here turns out amazingly good… but not the chicken. I dutifully toweled and salted and herbed and refrigerated my chicken, and then followed the cooking times exactly. However, I suppose my chicken was too big, because when I took it out of the oven and cut the first drumstick off, I was left holding a bloody nub. My chicken did not cook all the way through. After four minutes in the microwave, it was edible, but STILL. Frustrating.
Thank you thank you thank you! Like Anna said above, making a whole roast chicken (or anything really) was also one of my big kitchen fears. This turned out amazing and my husband is already begging me to make it weekly. I also used a large cast iron skillet, but for some reason didn’t end up with any good drippings, still not sure why though. The bread salad was also fabulous. This is definitely a great roasted chicken to make my Jewish mom and grandmothers proud :)
that looks just amazing – to die for really. and who said salads were boring?? x
i’m new to cooking -
what are we doing with the chicken drippings after heating them up?
are we pouring it over the chicken?
made the chicken yesterday-yum
(big mess in oven and set off smoke detector but it was worth it)
You can use them to drizzle over the bread salad, or save them for leftovers (they note they’d be great with egg noodles or even stirred into a leftover roast chicken salad. I think Orangette has that recipe over here.
I’m having company for dinner this weekend and stopped here first in my search for a roasted chicken recipe. I need not look further. One concern: does the small bird comfortably feed four? If not, can I do two birds in one oven?
It probably depends more on how big eaters your guests are, and how many sides. We did feed four with it (I also steamed some haricot vert) but there was not a speck last, something always a little disconcerting when you’re hosting.
My husband is a long time hater of roast chicken. I rarely made it before, since every time I suggested it he would cringe and I wasn’t that big of a fan of it to make him sit through a meal of sort of dry mildly flavorful chicken (I really only liked it because leftovers made excellent sandwiches and salads).
Until now! I tried this recipe last Friday night and we are both in love! He could not get enough of this recipe, I seriously think he ate half of the chicken. This will quite possibly become what we eat every Friday night from now on!
I made this the other night and it was amazing! It was my first time making roasted chicken, and honestly the hardest part was finding a bird small enough. My husband and I ate half for dinner, but as I was putting away the leftovers I couldn’t stop sneaking bites! So flavorful and delicious!
Deb, Firstly, I’m a BIG fan – you give hope to (and raise the bar for) everyone with a small kitchen. Thomas Keller’s chicken has been my go-to recipe for the last year, in fact my husband won’t let me try any other… there are two little birds in the fridge, waiting to be roasted for tomorrow, and I think I might sneak home to salt them this afternoon, and cook them per your instructions instead!
Thanks again for all the great recipes, fantastic writing and fabulous pictures, Happy Holidays from Singapore!
Made this chicken tonight and served it simply with oven-roasted potatoes and buttered green peas. It was deliciously moist with perfect skin, but I think I would love something a little more aromatic to flavor it. I usually stuff my bird with onion, lemon, garlic, and any available herb and I was definitely missing those flavors. BUT, I really, really liked the recipe and understand why it’s so popular. Thank you for sharing this simplified version.
made this for xmas lunch yesterday, loved it. Ta from Glasgow.
I made this last night for my BF and best friend and they LOVED it. I had to change the recipe a tad because I was missing a few minor things; but it was fantastic. Your pictures inspire me!!
I accidentally bought a big chicken before I read the recipe more closely – about 5lb. Also, we ended up with a big storm in Portland, so I couldn’t get out to get fresh herbs – I used dried rubbed sage, which turned out surprisingly well, and we followed the instructions through the roasting stage. We just lowered the heat at the end to 350 and cooked another 15 minutes or so, testing with a meat thermometer until it reached the right temp. Fantastic recipe, and I was so glad it came out so well even with a bigger chicken. We were about to give up on homemade chicken before we found this recipe – flavorful, moist, fantastic. Thanks. Can’t wait to try with a smaller chicken and fresh herbs.
Years ago I had this at Zuni cafe. A memorable meal. And was so excited to actually try it at home once. I had forgotten about it, though. Thanks for the reminder. Cannot wait to try it again.
would it be ok to use a glass casserole dish or does the pan need to be metal? I want to try this tonight but only have a glass dish…can I heat it on the stove then put it in the oven?
I do think you could probably roast the bird in the glass, but I would not put glass on the stove — as far as I understand, it is not safe for direct heat cooking. Do you have a cast-iron frying pan (what I used) or any kind of 10 to 12-inch frying/saute pan? That’s your best bet for going from the stove to oven.
Dear Deb! thanks for the great recipe, I made it for NYE and it was wonderful. Shopping late lead me to a too big chicken, so I halved it and soldiered on…… Worked great! I just pretended that it was a whole chicken. This will be my go to chicken meal.
Great blog.
As one earlier poster asked, but I didn’t see a response, should I use the salting step if using a kosher chicken which is already salted during the koshering process? Thanks.
Hi Gary — There was no response because I haven’t tried this recipe with a Kosher chicken. But I’d love to hear back from anyone who has tried it, as I think it will be helpful to future commenters. My hunch: Probably go ahead and salt it anyway. The salting process for Koshering is different I think (I’m not expert)– this salting is for flavor and moisture, and the salt stays on until the end. Good luck!
Just finished eating my perfectly roasted chicken. Instead of preheating my dish on the stove I preheated it in the oven, which worked just fine. My chicken was larger than the size you recommended, but it still turned out very well. Thank you, Deb, for a really easy and delicious recipe.
I read about Zuni Cafe Roasted Chicken with Bread Salad years ago, prior to going to the restaurant. After having a fabulous meal, I had to have to recipe. I bought the book and have made it several times. I must say, my favorite part is eating the bread salad. I made it for a birthday dinner last night and 3 of 3 children even asked for seconds! There was nothing left and I had tripled the recipes and served them to ten people!
Oh, my. Long time listener, first time caller, Deb. This chicken was impressive enough that it was hard to be remotely demure or modest aboutd my success. That is, I entirely failed to be anything but impressed with myself.
The chicken was delicious, tender, juicy, exceptional, and memorable. I made the bread salad a bit crispy ’cause I like it like that, but the general seasoning concept you provided turned out to be a wonderful complement to the chicken. I tossed my bread salad with baby bok choy tips ’cause I love ‘em, and they were wonderful.
Thank you, thank you!
my chicken is sitting in the fridge as we speak. i am hoping it turns out, though I just realized it is a little bigger. thanks for all the wonderful recipes and inspiration to feed my family better.
I absolutely love this recipe/method – although I must say the Marcella Hazan Roast Bird with 2 Lemons is a little less labor intensive and is pretty exceptional.
I tried it and the meat was really really tender – however, the the skin wasn’t nearly as crisp as I’d liked it to be. Maybe it’s my oven *sigh*
But I will try again in the near future.
I added some dried, ground peppers and thyme to the salt-and-pepper seasoning on the outside of the skin, smelled really good! =)
This was so amazing! I used balsamic vinegar instead of Champagne vinegar because it was all I had, and it was so, so, so yummy. I also left out the pine nuts and currants due to my currently limited means, so the dish was quite economical. I absolutely loved it and so did my parents and the hubby. We will have this many more times!
i ended up making 2 roast chickens – one with this recipe and one with a same day preparation recipe (standard rubdown with oil, stuff with veggies, etc). the one i used for this preparation happened to be the larger one (4 1/2-5 lbs) and it still turned out amazingly. it was incredibly moist and the crispy skin really did it for me, and made it far superior to the other chicken that i bought and made the same day.
don’t you just love side by side comparisons?
I have made this roast chicken three times in my tiny little glorified toaster oven. Wow!! Juicy meat, crisp skin, fabulous. The first time, I amused myself during the cooking time thinking about what I could make with the leftovers, but we picked the entire bird clean at dinner. The next time, I knew better! The carcass made delicious chicken stock.
Made this tonight, after obsessing over the recipe all day at work. I wanted to make it tonight, but hadn’t pre-salted, and I couldn’t decide if the recipe/technique would work at all. I took my chances, salted it and only let it sit for about an hour before popping in the pre-heated pan. It was really, really good! I’m not a roasted chicken connoisseur, by any means, and I’m sure it would be even better with the two-day-plus salting time, but if any other roasted-chicken newbies are interested in making this at the last minute — I say go for it!
This is a winner, but I have to say my favorite whole-roasted-chicken is still the high roast butterflied chicken from Cooks Illustrated. You do cut the backbone out to butterfly it, so maybe it’s not quite in the same category, but it’s roasted on a broiling pan with thinly sliced potatoes layered in the bottom of the pan, so all of the drippings carmelize to form deliciously crispy potato sidedish!
I made this the other night (it really was delicious) and was left with a ton of chicken. I usually stay away from chicken salad (I have a sort of mayonnaise phobia) but quickly grew tired of picking at the leftovers. I ended up improvising a great chicken salad that uses plain yogurt instead of mayonnaise!
It includes:
cold chopped chicken, plain yogurt, dijon mustard, roasted red pepper spread, raw zucchini, onion, parsley and salt and pepper…delicious!
Absolutely amazing… The best thing to ever come out of my oven.. Great taste and easy to prepare with the straight-forward instructons. A tremendous find.
I’ve made this chicken twice now and I LOVE it! However, one issue always makes me hesitant to make it again; both times I’ve made this I set off my fire alarm. The chicken is never burnt, but as soon as I open the over door a lot of smoke comes out and my annoying fire alarm goes off–causing my husband and I to run around in a panic trying to get them to stop so the neighbors don’t complain.
I think it might be because the chicken juices are splattering in the oven. I tried covering the chicken with aluminum foil once but the skin didn’t crisp up (and that’s the best part!).
Anyone have any ideas as to what I can do? Right now I’m debating pulling the batteries out of all the fire alarms so I can make this again.
I have an adaption of the Judy Rogers version from Zuni Cafe. The rub is simply sugar, salt and five-spice powder. Where my concern is the recipe says to “dry the skin by leaving in refrigerator, uncovered, for 48 hours.” Any thoughts? My 48 hours just started 1 hour ago.
Nov – I’ve had the exact same problem twice using a cast iron skillet to make the chicken. It sets off the fire alarm and there is a lot of smoke. I’m planning on making it again this week so we’ll see. It’s just too good to give up.
I made this not so long ago and I love it!!!! However, I’ve also had the same problem as some other people about it setting off the fire alarm. For some reason the juices or grease from the chicken splatters all over the inside of the oven causing it to smoke. As soon as I open the oven, the house is filled with smoke and my oven is a mess. I am going to attempt it again. This time I’m going to try to make the bread salad also since I didn’t last time. Yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!
the recipe for zuni cafe chicken has an error. the recipe is supposed to say approx. 3/4 tsp of (kosher) salt per lb of chicken. not 3/4 tsp total.
I am a convert. This is the best roasted chicken I’ve ever eaten, and it came from my own oven! I had the same problems with smoke that others had and may also try using something other than cast iron next time. I used a local, organic, free range chicken from my farmer’s market, but I’m eager to try a chicken from the grocery store to see the difference! Esp. since I won’t be able to buy the farmer’s market chicken in winter. Making stock tomorrow! Thanks for the beautiful blog, Deb, and congrats on your new son!
This really IS the best roasted chicken I’ve ever made. I made it for the second time tonight – the first time, my bird was not small enough (around 4lbs) and I didn’t dry it thoroughly enough. I think these two things really are the key. Before the bird stuck to the pan when I flipped it and the meat wasn’t dry, but wasn’t juicy either. Just ok.
This time I had a small bird (3 1/2 lbs) and I was sure to dry it. It did not stick, as it did the first time, and the color came out perfect. Following the advice of another poster, I used wads of paper towels to flip the bird and it worked perfectly. The meat seriously WAS like butter!! I was amazed.
I also made the bread salad. The only modification I made was instead of using the chicken stock or salted water, I used the drippings on the salad – I just couldn’t resist. My bird didn’t render hardly and fat, I merely added a couple of tablespoons of water to deglaze the pan and then poured that over the salad. It was delicious.
I’m a bit paranoid and very inexperienced, but if you’ve got a sec, can you confirm that I am reading it right that a fresh chicken is left seasoned in the fridge for 2-3 days? I’ve just followed the recipe and currently have a chicken seasoning in the fridge waiting for Friday. However, in my brain is lodged a rule, acquired who knows where, limiting leaving poultry in the fridge to 24 hours (and googling this sort of thing only adds to paranoia). Have you read Larry’s Party by Carol Shields? Where Larry’s mom unwittingly kills her mother-in-law with badly preserved green beans? That haunts me. Here’s to a dinner party that ends with all parties hearty!
BEST chicken ever.
I made this chicken once before and it was absolutely amazing. DH and I just kept staring at each other, mouths full and chewing, in disbelief of how good it was. However, I used a kosher chicken and because of that, didn’t salt it until the morning of. I am trying it for a second time but couldn’t get kosher, so I brined them (3.25lb birds) and then seasoned/salted them – all in a 36 hr period so I”m not sure it will be as good. I’m trying two birds at once, for company, and am praying it will be as good, since they’ve heard me go on and on about this recipe for weeks! One thing I can say – be SURE you get the bird good and dry – because it will stick. I’m not sure if I read the recipe correctly but it appears she says to preheat the pan on the stove top, but I just did it in the oven. The bird has to be dry and the pan good and hot or it will stick.
Ok so this chicken looks amazing and I really want to make 2 for new years eve but was wondering if anyone had any tips for roasting a chicken in high altitude? We’ll be heading up to the mountains from Denver and while I’m more or less adjusted to cooking in Denver I have no clue about higher altitude. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Can’t wait to try this recipe :)
I FINALLY made this. One little portion of skin stuck but everything else was great! I was still a little disappointed since it doesn’t live up to Pollo a la Brasa. Guess I will need to learn how to make that, too.
We made this last night and it was AMAZING. Cooked to 165 (verified by a meat thermometer), so it was moist and delicious with a crisp skin. Easily the best roasted chicken I’ve had.
I’m planning on making this for 8 this weekend (I’ll do two chickens with the bread salad). Any suggestions on additional side dishes that might go well with this?
DO NOT USE A CERAMIC PAN to put on the stove.
I know this probably sounds really obvious but I didn’t think. It says “roasting dish” in the recipe,” and I put it on the stove and when I put the chicken in it sizzled, as promised, and then cracked in half.
I ruined my friend’s symbolic ceramic dish. Sad!