Zuni’s Homemade Roast Chicken

Zuni Café is one of our favorite dining spots in the city. Every time we visit, we unfailingly order the Chicken for Two as soon as we sit down, as it takes an hour’s notice, but totally worth the wait. When Ben’s manager mentioned to him that he’d recently made the Zuni chicken recipe, we immediately decided we were up for the challenge. Part 1 - The Hard Part You have to decide a few days ahead of time. I usually don’t know what I want for dinner until I step off the Caltrain and walk over to Safeway, so two whole days of preparation was difficult. After a visit to Whole Foods to get a small bird and a few other necessities, I trudged home, knowing that I was going to have to prep the raw chicken. I don’t really do whole chickens; I prefer neatly packaged, skinless chicken breasts. I prefer to not deal with the bones and oogy bits, but Ben was in Redmond so it was up to me. At least I didn’t have to cut out any bones! It wasn’t as bad as I anticipated, but I was really grossed out by having to make pockets under the skin for the herbs. The recipe calls for any of four herbs; I chose rosemary. While I enjoyed the rosemary flavor, I would pick something a bit simpler next time. I didn’t enjoy the soggy rosemary leaves in the finished product, though the flavor was fantastic. The only other prep work is to season it with salt and pepper. This just seemed too simple.

Two Days of Preperation at South of Market

Rosemary Under the Skin at South of Market

Part 2 - Roasting the Chicken After thorough drying and pre-heating, I nervously put the chicken in the skillet, very worried that the skin would stick since we didn’t put any oil on the chicken or in the pan. When it came time to flip it over (which I left up to Ben!), we were completely shocked that it didn’t stick at all. It’s a bit surprising that the cooking time is so short (45min) and high (475 degrees). All I can say is it worked like magic.

Part 3 – Making The Bread Salad I hate stuffing. Soggy bread is just gross. But the Zuni stuffing is A-maz-ing. It takes quite a few steps, but it’s not that hard. And I didn’t even mind the currants (basically, raisins – Schmitz’s are born with an aversion to raisins). I toasted the bread pieces a bit too long in an attempt to ensure no sogginess touched my plate. All in all, I was impressed that I didn’t botch the recipe. I have an uncanny knack to mess up at least one thing every time I make dinner. The result was a tender, juicy and crispy-skinned chicken and tasty bread salad.

Part 4 – Done That’s it, delicious and very quickly devoured.

You can find the full recipe on Smitten Kitchen.