Roast Chicken and Bread

We saw this recipe for Garlic and Thyme Roasted Chicken With Crispy Drippings Croutons in the New York Times and I couldn’t resist it! It is very simple and clever. Basically you roast a chicken in a hot oven. Under the chicken you place good bread that catches the chicken drippings and becomes a giant crouton that you can break up and use in a salad. We used the salad from the Zuni Café Cookbook that they make with their Roast Chicken. Following Billy’s advice we used the left over chicken to make a great chicken soup!

With the chicken we served Fava Bean Potato Hash from a recipe that Corina gave us from her restaurant Canele. It was a perfect accompaniment. You can get the recipe for the hash from our blog of May 26, 2008. Click the date to get the recipe.

Zuni Bread Salad
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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

Garlic and Thyme Roasted Chicken With Crispy Drippings Croutons
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March 11, 2009
New York Times
Recipe

Time: 1 hour 25 minutes, plus 10 minutes’ resting
Country bread, ciabatta or other sturdy bread, preferably stale, sliced at least 1/2-inch thick
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, more as needed
2 teaspoons kosher salt, more as needed
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, more as needed
1 4- to 5-pound chicken, patted dry
1 garlic head, sliced in half horizontally, through the cloves
1 bay leaf
1/2 lemon
1/2 bunch thyme sprigs.

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Arrange oven rack so that it is in center of oven. Lay bread slices in a thick, heavy-duty metal roasting pan in one layer. (Try not to use a thin or dark colored pan, which may cause bread to burn: see note.) Drizzle liberally with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

2. Rub 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper inside cavity of chicken. Stuff cavity with garlic, bay leaf, lemon and thyme. Rub outside of chicken with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle all over with remaining salt and pepper. Place it breast side up on bread.

3. Roast chicken until it is deeply browned and juices run clear when thigh is pricked with a knife, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes before carving. Serve chicken with bread from pan.

Yield: 4 servings.

Note: If you use a thin or dark roasting pan, you might consider lowering the oven temperature to 375 degrees to prevent the bread from getting too dark. Check the pan periodically during cooking and lower the temperature as necessary (you can open the oven door for a minute to reduce heat quickly.) It may take longer for the chicken to cook through at a lower temperature.