This is a replica of the roasted chicken and bread salad at Zuni Cafe in California.
This is more of a weekend recipe. The chicken will put us over the time limit that I would consider for an easy weeknight.
The Zuni cafe does their chicken in a brick oven, which gives it a nice smoky flavor. Roasted chicken is just as well.
Tips on How to Make an Awesome Chicken
- Massage spices under and over the skin. Put a little extra seasoning under the skin of the breast as it doesn’t absorb quite as readily as the fattier parts. Get inside the bird – every crevice.
- The chicken should not look like some sad, pale thing. After it has been seasoned with its spice massage, liberally shake paprika and parsley flakes over it.
- Let it chill out for a while on the counter. No need to salmonella yourself – 30 minutes to an hour is perfect. As it gets closer to room temperature, it will cook more evenly, the seasonings will be better absorbed, and it will be more juicy. If you don’t have time for the chicken to hang out for an hour, that is fine, too. It is not an absolute requirement.
- Let it cook upside down for the first 40 minutes. This gets a lot of extra juiciness in the breast. Some people cook their chickens upside down the entire time, but it can give the meat sort of an odd texture. I find 40 minutes to be just right.
- Use a meat thermometer to ensure that it is perfectly cooked.
A Note on the Bread Salad
- Feel free to skip the fancy stuff and just do the greens with the bread. The bread salad at Zuni cafe has mustard greens, scallions, garlic, currants, and pine nuts. If you don’t have all these ingredients – the primary source of this salad’s excitement comes from those toasty, lightly dressed bread chunks mixed with the greens.
- Kids are good at tearing up bread, if you have any idle little ones hanging around.
- I couldn’t remember the flavor of the dressing well enough to try to copy it. The dressing recipe is my standard blend. The dressing ingredients are in grams, figuring you could just do it all on a food scale. Less mess.
I’ve always wondered why food bloggers had to write twenty paragraphs before they let you get to the recipe.
How did I let this happen?
Here is the recipe :
Roasted Whole Chicken with Bread Salad
Ingredients
- For the chicken:
- 1 whole chicken
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp adobo
- olive oil
- thyme
- paprika
- parsley flakes
- For the Bread Salad
- 1 loaf day-old Italian bread
- 4 cups mustard greens, arugula, or other leafy green
- 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
- 4 sprigs chopped scallion
- 3 cloves fresh garlic sliced
- 2 tbsp currants craisins can work, too
- For the Dressing:
- 30 g champagne or white wine vinegar
- 30 g red wine vinegar
- 100 g olive oil
- 5 g lemon juice
- 80 g water
- 8 g salt
- 1/2 clove fresh minced garlic
- pinch parsley flake
- pinch oregano
- pinch red pepper flake
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Mix the salt, onion powder, garlic powder and adobo in a dish. Gently rub the blend under the skin and inside the chicken.
- Dampen your hands with some olive oil, grab what is left of the spice rub and massage the outside of the skin (get both sides of the chicken).
- Shake paprika and parsley flake liberally over the chicken.
- Put the chicken in the pan upside down and bake for 40 minutes.
- After 40 minutes, remove the chicken from the oven and flip it right side up (you can stick a large wooden spoon in the body, stab it with tongs and flip it). Allow it to continue cooking in the oven.
- Total time in the oven is 20 minutes per pound. Internal temperature should be 165°, and clear juices should flow out when punctured.
- In the meantime, mix the dressing ingredients.
- Tear the bread into pieces, toss it in a bowl with a few tablespoons of the dressing, and let it soak.
- When the chicken is done, remove it from the oven and let it rest while you prepare the salad.
- Heat the oven to 450°.
- Toast the pine nuts and saute the scallion and garlic in a pan with a bit of oil until softened and fragrant.
- Toss the bread chunks onto a baking sheet and toast them for 5 minutes.
- Dump the greens into a bowl. Add the scallion and garlic mixture (if using).
- Toss in the warm bread chucks and drizzle with the dressing.
- Serve the bread salad alongside the chicken.
Notes
Macros can vary depending on what part of the chicken you have, if you eat the skin, how much of the dressing you use, etc.
Here are some estimates:
3.5 oz chicken breast no skin – 165 calories – 3.6 fat – 0 carbs – 31 protein
3.5 oz roasted chicken meat with skin – 226 calories – 14 fat – 0 carbs – 25 protein
Salad dressing per tablespoon – 45 calories – 9 fat – 0 carbs – 0 protein
Italian Bread per ounce – 65 calories – .5 fat – 12 carbs – 2 protein (there might be a bit more fat from soaking in the dressing)
Bread or Pizza Dough Recipe
If you prefer to make your own bread, this is an easy recipe from the Figs Restaurant cookbook.
- 1/4 cup whole-wheat flour
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional flour for rolling
- 2 teaspoons (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 2/3 cups warm water
Mix.. cover with something warm, allow to rise… you probably know the drill.