ZUNI ROAST CHICKEN & BREAD SALAD

ZUNI ROAST CHICKEN & BREAD SALAD image

Number Of Ingredients 20

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Ingredients

INGREDIENTS
For the chicken
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
Salt
About 1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
A little water
For the salad
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
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar, or as needed
1 tablespoon warm water
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 {page 58} or lightly salted water
A few handfuls of arugula, frisée, or red mustard greens, carefully washed and dried

Steps:

Preheat the oven to 475. properly. May need to turn it up. Choose a shallow flameproof roasting pan or dish barely larger than the chicken. Wipe the chicken dry and set it breast side up in the pan. It should sizzle. 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. Total oven time will be 45 minutes to an hour. While the chicken is roasting, place the pine nuts in a small baking dish and set in the hot oven for a minute or two, just to warm though. Add them to the bowl of bread. Place a spoonful of the olive oil in a small skillet, add the garlic and scallions, and cook over medium-low heat, Combine with bread. Add currents. Dribble the chicken stock or lightly salted water over the salad. Pile the bread salad in a 1-quart baking dish and tent with foil; set the salad bowl aside. Place the salad in the oven after you flip the chicken the final time. Remove the chicken from the oven and turn off the heat. Leave the bread salad to continue warming for another 5 minutes of so. Lift the chicken from the roasting pan and set on a plate. Carefully pour the clear fat from the roasting oven, 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. Set the chicken in a warm spot and leave to rest. 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. Tip the bread salad into the salad bowl. Drizzle and toss with a spoonful of the pan juices. Add the greens, a drizzle of vinaigrette.