Comments on: zuni cafe’s roasted chicken + bread salad

By: melissa

melissa — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 07:36:44 +0000

i’ve lived in san francisco for more than 15 years but haven’t made it to zuni yet. i did just try the zuni chicken recipe, though, after trying the bouchon dry-brine method in a couple incarnations. the zuni wins, hands down–it was the best roast chicken i’ve ever made, and i’ve made quite a few! i used a 3-pound free-range bird in a 10-inch nonstick skillet and followed the recipe to a T, with the sole exception of sliding thin slices of garlic under the skin along with the herbs and throwing a couple garlic cloves in the cavity (i like the meat to have a little more flavor). it was done to perfection in under 45 minutes. i haven’t made the bread salad yet, but it’s only a matter of time… ps i’ve used the dry-brining method with kosher birds, and they come out fine–just a little saltier than regular birds, with a slightly different texture.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 01:00:55 +0000

I was a Zuni customer before they even had an oven. They would set a Weber kettle outside the back door at lunch. It was great watching them grow and take over the next several storefronts over time. But when it comes to this dish my five year old son Noah, said it best – “I tasted the skin and I almost turned into music.”

By: LeA

LeA — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 04:24:21 +0000

I’m late to this party but i just made the roast chicken and it was cooked perfectly all the way around! the breast was tender, and juicy and not dry and sad. It was also perfect flavored (altho the day before it felt like i was using a LOT of salt). I made the dijon sauce from your other roast chicken recipe and it was a great addition, thanks!

By: Shane

Shane — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 21:31:38 +0000

This is a fantastic recipe but I just want to point out again that the salt quantity is wrong. It should be 3/4 teaspoon salt *per pound*.

By: Laura

Laura — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 21:21:52 +0000

PLEASE HELP!!!! I am living in Malawi and decided to do roast chicken for Thanksgiving since I can’t get a turkey. Unfortunately, my friend who got the local chickens for me cut them in HALF after cleaning/plucking them. Can I still roast them? If not, what should I do? Oh please oh please, help! I am desperate! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

By: Gryphonisle

Gryphonisle — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 06:37:23 +0000

It boggles the mind that someone running a food website could be so dense in thinking that chicken is dry. Wouldn’t you at least have experimented a bit to see if it could be tender and moist?

The better your chicken, of course, the better your results—and the less chance of those unpleasant after effects of sloppy farming at the corporate level, you know, bacteria and such…

A good chicken requires almost no effort. A little salt and pepper, some butter if you recently watched Julia Child; olive oil if you haven’t, and about an hour—unless your bird is so authentically upscale it’s barely grown enough to have added the “en” at the end of its name… and you have moist but cooked, succulent and delicious chicken—white meat. The dark is also good, but I prefer the white.

A thermometer always comes in handy, but if you’ve done it a couple of times, you’ll have gotten a feel for it.

But please, before you stick your foot in your mouth, at least try to do it right, whatever “it” may be. Clicking onto a food webpage to read that the writer thinks a certain meat is dry by nature is like cooking onto a food webpage where the ingredients are products, in cans and boxes; horribly disappointing and devastating to the credibility of the website.

By: Katy

Katy — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 04:14:07 +0000

This chicken was the stuff of legends.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:34:49 +0000

You may also want to try Commando Chicken from “Forking Fantastic” You put the seasoned, lemmoned chicken directly on the rack in the oven over a pan of sliced potatoes. The drippings from the chicken “fry” the potatoes and the whole thing is amazing!

By: Darlynne

Darlynne — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:27:08 +0000

I made this entree the other night for company and served it with cumin seed roasted cauliflower and Mediterranean pepper salad. Appetizers included the basil-infused olive oil–my new favorite go-to for bread, hostess gifts, you name it–that’s in your naked tomato sauce recipe. It was a Smitten Kitchen evening and everyone thinks I’m brilliant. Thank you!

By: Erin

Erin — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:50:32 +0000

My oh my this chicken is beyond delicious. And I love a roast chicken, since I was a little child. Next time I need to make sure I use enough salt, but my dog was drooling and I realized my smoke detector battery was dead because my entire apartment got very cloudy. . . but so worth it. Doing it again next weekend.